What I Like About You
by Gillian Beilschmidt
Summary: Maddie Williams is ready for another normal year at her fairly boring high school. But a certain transfer student named Gillian Beilschmidt shows up with no intentions of letting that happen, along with her friends Antonio and Francis. Expect a very fluffy high school AU with nyo!Prucan (fem!Canada and fem!Prussia), some trouble with the BTT, and some fem!US/UK on the side.
1. We're Going to be Friends

**A/N: Basically, I'm just writing this story because there isn't enough of my favorite femme ship out there. Nyo!PruCan is adorable and everyone should ship it, because Maddie is precious and Gillian is just awesome.**

* * *

Madeline Williams was, in a word, quite average.

Medium height—just over one hundred and fifty two centimeters. She had a fairly unremarkable hair color—a sort of honey brown, but she had recently been coaxed into adding golden highlights by her overbearing mother. At sixteen, she had finally lost her baby fat and was still rather self-conscious about it. She finally got her awful braces off, and now had quite a nice smile, although she was still painfully shy, and not many people got to see her smile. Her grades were good because she worked hard; she wasn't exceptionally clever or athletic. She was passionate about French and liked reading more than anything, except playing with her cat, Kuma. She attended high school with her stepsister Amelia and occasionally went to soccer games and drank copious amounts of tea and fought with her mom and stepdad and complained about life. So yes, she was fairly average.

_Too_ average.

Maddie had a hard time standing out. Most people simply looked over her. She was quiet, yes, but it was more than that. Sometimes she felt like people looked straight through her. Her teachers' eyes passed over her in class, even when she dared to raise her hand to answer a question when it was obvious that the other students didn't know. She was almost always the last one to be picked for teams in PE, not because she was awful at sports, but because people often forgot she was there. Most of the time, it didn't bother her too much. She liked keeping to herself and her small circle of friends. But sometimes, she wanted to be noticed.

It would be so nice, just for once.

And so, she was rather anxious for the start of her sophomore year of high school. She stood in front of the mirror, fluffing her curly hair expectantly, trying to get some shape into her hair. She tugged her high-waisted denim shorts down a bit and tucked in the cute, lacy blue top that she had picked out last week for this day. It would definitely help that her mom had decided to intervene with her wardrobe choices. All throughout middle school and her freshman year, she had dressed rather badly, mostly out of laziness. Her mother, an editor for a fashion magazine, had finally had it with her daughter's baggy sweatpants and borrowing of her stepdad's old college sweatshirts, and stepped in. "Madeleine, how are people ever going to notice you if you insist on dressing like a slob?" She had said sternly, patting her cheek affectionately. "Now, you're going to start dressing like an adult. See if they don't notice then!" At first, she had been quite opposed to the idea—"Why don't you make Amelia dress more nicely?" "Because she is a lost cause, _ma cherie_."—but after spending all summer pouring over copies of _Vogue_, she had finally grown more fond of nicer clothes. The one thing her mother hadn't been able to convince her to get rid of was her glasses. Maddie knew she could just wear contacts like Amelia, but she liked her glasses. They also set her apart from Amelia, who looked rather similar to her despite the fact that they weren't related by blood. She sighed, and applied some light gold eye shadow before turning away from her reflection, nodding at the mousy girl in the mirror in encouragement, before she marched across the hall to knock on her sister's bedroom door.

"Amelia?" She asked, rapping on the door. "Are you up yet?"

"Nnnng," came the drowsy reply.

So, no.

She chuckled a little as she went downstairs to start their coffee. Amelia couldn't function without it. But when she walked into the warm, sunlit kitchen, she saw her stepfather sitting at the breakfast table, sipping his black coffee out of an 'I heart NY' mug. "There's my Maddie!" He said affectionately, looking up from his paper with a smile. "Coffee's ready. Where's my other girl?"

"Still asleep, believe it or not," Maddie quipped as she poured herself some of the hot drink into her own favorite mug, a light pink one decorated with dancing cats. She preferred tea, but both of the Jones were heavily dependent on it, and she decided that it was alright on occasion.

Her stepdad laughed. "She takes after her old man. I'm still not used to getting up at eight a.m. every day, and it's been seven years since I got this job in D.C."

"Mmm," Maddie agreed noncommittally, watching the steam rise off of her drink absently. She mentally ran through a list of things of her classes today: American history, geometry, gym, lunch, then chemistry, English, and French at the very end of the day. She smiled at the thought of school starting again. French was her very best class, and the only one she was looking forward to, besides English.

She glanced past her step dad's broad shoulders to the little window above the sink, watching the early morning joggers and dog walkers make their way through the brisk autumn day. Autumn was always her favorite season; she loved the way the golden brown leaves cluttered the dove grey sidewalks and the way the sky was almost always slightly overcast, but still warm enough to be outside. It reminded her of living in Quebec, where she lived until she was six with her mother, when the days were so beautiful and crisp and the nights were deliciously cool, before the long winters settled in. She liked to watch the familiar faces swarm their large school building and hear the boisterous laughter of friends finding each other again after a long summer. Suddenly, she was stirred out of her cheerful musings by her sister's loud footsteps crashing down the stairs.

"Aw man, why didn't you wake me, Maddie? Artie's gonna yell if we're late—" Her sister cried, rushing about the kitchen.

"I knocked on your door," Maddie remarked calmly, unfazed. "You made some kind of reply."

Amelia groaned loudly, shoving some bread in the toaster. "Okay, backpack, backpack, where's my backpack—"

"By the stairs," Maddie answered.

"Thanks Maddie! You're the best!" She said over her shoulder. "Okay, it's seven forty-five. Arthur should be here—"

The doorbell buzzed, and the three members of the Jones-Williams family looked up, startled.

"Dammit," Amelia said under her breath, racing upstairs to get something.

"Language, Amelia," her father called after her, chuckling a little.

"Say bye to Mum for me," Maddie said, standing up hurriedly as she went upstairs to grab her school supplies. "Gotta go!"

Five minutes later, the two girls were in their neighbor's archaic grey Ford Anglia, driving down the smooth streets of their Washington D.C. suburb. Maddie sat in the back, listening to Amelia chatter happily in the passenger's seat, much more energetic now that she had had her coffee.

"Where's Peter?" Maddie inquired curiously, noticing that the car ride to school was much quieter without the youngest Kirkland boy.

"Dad was able to take him to school today, thankfully," Arthur said, glaring at a pedestrian that walked out in front of his car without warning. "I don't think I would be able to handle him today." Arthur was the second youngest out of five boys, and a year older than Amelia and Maddie. They had been neighbors ever since the Jones-Williams family moved in down the street seven years ago. He and Amelia had quickly become friends, despite Arthur's constant complaining about her boisterous personality and her teasing. He was pretty grouchy, even for a teenager, but he could also be pretty sweet when he felt like it. Maddie was pretty sure he had at least a little bit of a crush on Amelia, and he was always unfailingly polite to her, even when he accidentally called her by the wrong name...which happened more than she would like.

"Aw, I like your brothers," Amelia said, grinning. "And Peter's so cute. He's like a little you!"

"Yeah, well, you don't have to live with him," Arthur muttered, flushing slightly at her comment as they turned into the school parking lot. "He's a little prat, is what he is." He parked and they walked up to the large glass doors in front of the concrete and brick school building, but not before passing a trio of students loitering on the freshly manicured lawn, standing apart from the other students that made their way to class.

"Hey!" Maddie recognized a tanned senior named Antonio, donning his usual attire of a FIFA World Cup jersey and black basketball shorts. He waved at them cheerfully, his white smile standing out against his golden skin. "How were your summers? You ready for the soccer scrimmage this weekend, Amelia?" He asked her sister, who played for the girls' soccer team.

"Ready to kick your asses, yeah," Amelia said cheerfully, pausing to smile back at him. "The guys won't win this year!"

Maddie cringed a little when she noticed that her cousin Francis was with them, along with a short, slender, girl with giant sunglasses and silvery hair. She loved him a lot, he was just…very affectionate. And sometimes annoying. And kind of weird. But he was still family.

"_Ma petit_ Madeleine," Francis said happily, hugging his cousin tightly. She could feel the slight stubble he always had rubbing against her forehead and sighed deeply. "How have you been?"

"Francis, I just saw you last week," she squeaked, fighting his clingy embrace and the rather strong smell of his cologne.

"You know you're not supposed to smoke on school grounds," Arthur said bossily, eyeing the handsome boy's cigarette disapprovingly when he released the Canadian girl.

"I missed you too," Francis said cheekily, blowing a smoke ring into the Brit's face. "I see you haven't grown any less stuffy over the summer. And you somehow managed to become paler."

"Fuck off," Arthur said, scowling, waving the smoke out of his face. "Who's this? Your girlfriend?" He gestured to the silver-haired girl, who continued to study them and puff on her own cigarette as she leaned against the brick wall nonchalantly.

Antonio burst out laughing, clapping a hand over his mouth. "Please," he chuckled. "We all know that Francis likes y—"

"Like I would date this guy," the girl interrupted, raising her sunglasses to study each of them in turn. Maddie's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that her irises were a very peculiar shade of red. Oh! So she was an albino. That would explain the sunglasses; direct sunlight probably hurt her eyes. "I'm Gillian Beilschmidt," she added, turning her wide smile on each of them. Her eyes hovered on Maddie, flickering up and down once before she winked at her. "So this is your cousin, huh? You didn't tell me that she was cute."

Maddie's mouth popped open a little in astonishment, and she felt all the blood rush to her face. Was she…was she _hitting_ on her? She finally managed to assemble her thoughts enough to reply, "I'm, um, Madeleine Williams, but you can call me Maddie, everyone else does—"

"And I'm Amelia Jones," her sister added, leaning heavily on Maddie's shoulder and beaming at the albino girl. "And this is Arthur Kirkland, our neighbor!" She gestured to the rather sullen junior at her side.

"Nice to meetcha," Gillian said. "I used to live around here, but my dad travels around a lot for the army. So not awesome. But at least I'm back here for my senior year." She rolled her eyes. "And I'm stuck with these guys."

"You love us," Francis said, unimpressed.

"Ah, Gil, I think we have to go now," Antonio said, glancing at his watch. "Government starts in three minutes—"

"Please, you're going to sleep through it anyway," she said, turning to the Spanish boy and affectionately ruffling his chestnut-colored hair. "But whatever. See you guys later," she said, grinning. She turned on her heel and jogged after her friend, her pale hair fluttering behind her like a banner.

"She's…interesting," Arthur remarked, raising his eyebrows at her odd choice of attire—a skin-tight black Rammstein shirt and denim mini-skirt with bright purple leggings.

"You know, I think I used to play soccer with her when we were little," Amelia mused as they walked inside. "She used to live here?"

"_Oui_, but she moves around all the time. It's been kind of hard on her and her brother," Francis said with a sigh, running a hand through his blond locks. "Anyway, I'll see you kids in a bit." He winked, shifting his designer bag to his other shoulder as he left them to go to his eight o'clock French class.

"He's so condescending," Arthur said, frowning. His green eyes narrowed in disdain as added, "He thinks because he's eighteen now he can call us kids…"

"Francis has always been kinda condescending, though," Amelia chimed in, her golden brown curls bouncing slightly as she danced ahead of them, turning backwards to face them as she continued to walk. "And anyway, _you_ always treat Maddie and I like we're so much younger than you, when you're only seventeen."

"Not Maddie," he corrected. "She's actually responsible."

Maddie smirked a little at that, but she wasn't really in the mood to listen to the bickering that would invariably follow that comment, so she waved good-bye to them and made her way to her history class, quickly forgetting about her cousin's flirtatious friend as she steeled herself to listen to a boring lecture about the Pilgrims.

* * *

Seventh period finally rolled around, and Maddie practically skipped to her French class on the second floor, relieved to be almost done with the day. The first day wasn't really hard, of course; the teachers mostly read the syllabus and explained their expectations for the year. Still, it hadn't gone as well as she had hoped. She only had friends in a few classes; Sakura was in her chemistry class, but she only really knew her through her friendship with Amelia. She was lucky enough to have her friend Carlos in both her history and geometry classes, and she had English with Amelia, but that left two classes without people she was friends with. She sighed as she walked up the linoleum steps, shoving her glasses further up her nose. Maybe she would have someone she knew in French. She quietly slipped into the classroom and found her customary seat in the second row, the same place she sat last year. She smiled politely at the boy to her right, a perpetually unhappy sophomore named Lovino Vargas who played for the boy's soccer team. He didn't seem to notice her, as he was busy trying to subtly eat the remains of his lunch without the teacher noticing.

The teacher, a delicate-looking woman in her early thirties with glasses and a long brown braid that trailed down her back, got their attention by rapping on the old blackboard with a ruler and clearing her throat. "_Bonjour_, and welcome to another year of French," she said in her calm, serious voice. "I am Madame Dubois, as many of you know. Here is this year's syllabus. Feliciana, if you will pass it out, please, and then we will read it over together." Lovino's eager-to-please twin sister jumped out of her seat from the back and handed out the syllabuses, smiling extra wide at Maddie, who smiled back. Feliciana was one of the nicest girls in their year. She couldn't fathom how she was related to Lovino.

"Alright, does everyone have a copy? _Bonne!_ First thing is first. This year, we will be having—"

The door slammed open then, and the class looked towards the direction of the noise, startled.

"Sorry, my stupid friend told me the wrong room number," the intruder said in a rather unapologetic tone, beaming at the teacher, who looked very unamused.

"Please take a seat, Miss…"

"Beilschmidt," Gillian replied, looking around the room for a seat. "Ah!" She grinned at Maddie and slid into the empty seat next to her, ignoring the glare of Madame Dubois. "Hey, awesome," she whispered to Maddie, who felt her face starting to turn red again. Why was she talking to her? She didn't want to get in trouble. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing yet," she whispered back, fidgeting with her glasses so she wouldn't have to look at her. Something about her was just...off-putting.

"Cool," Gillian replied, leaning over Maddie's desk to read off of her syllabus. "I don't really like French. I took German the first two years of high school, but of course they don't offer it here, so—"

"Miss Beilschmidt, Miss Williams, if you could save your conversation for later," Madam Dubois said, her eyes flashing dangerously behind her glasses.

Maddie felt herself slide down further into her seat, her entire face the same color as her cherry red backpack. "_Je suis desole_, Madame," she mumbled. She was one of Madame Dubois' favorite students, which made it even more embarrassing.

"Maddie, would you like to read the first part of the syllabus, then? In French?"

"S-sure," Maddie answered. She hated reading out loud, but it was just as well. Most of the people in their class had atrocious accents. In very clear French, she began to read, "This semester, we will be covering the preterit and future tenses. In order to fully comprehend the material, students will have weekly reading assignments as well as a French movie night once a month…" When she finished, Madame Dubois nodded in approval, smiling slightly.

"Very good. For the rest of class, you will introduce yourself to your partner and learn a few basic facts for next class. You will be partners for the rest of the year for oral exercises, so your best friend is probably not a good idea. You can choose your own partners, I don't care—" After that, the loud buzzing of the class cut her off as everyone frantically searched for a partner.

Maddie looked around with a resigned expression. She didn't really know anyone besides the Vargas twins, and Gillian of course, but she had only met her this morning. The only other sophomore she knew was a guy named Vash Zwingli, but he was pretty intimidating, and she didn't want to ask him. She looked back at Gillian, to see if she had found a partner yet.

"Sounds like you already know French pretty well," Gillian said, smiling. "Okay! You'll be my partner!"

"Um, alright," Maddie said reluctantly. She hoped that this new girl wouldn't try to get her to do all of the work, like her partner last year. She hated when people took advantage of her. She took a deep breath and added, "But, uh, I'm not gonna do everything, okay. I mean, I don't want to be rude, but—" Oh God, why did she say that? She probably thought she was a total bitch now.

Gillian stared at her for a second with her strangely colored eyes, and then burst out laughing, so loudly that Maddie felt self-conscious again because she could feel everyone in the classroom looking at her. "I like you," Gillian said, grinning. "You're more feisty than you let on."

"Uh, thanks?" Maddie said, confused. Well, at least she wasn't offended. But then, if she was friends with Francis and Antonio, it seemed unlikely that she was easily offended. "I guess we better start with introductions, then…" She glanced towards the prompt on the paper. "Names…"

"_Je suis_ the awesome Gillian, as you know," Gillian said grandly, pretending to bow.

"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to say all of that in French," Maddie corrected, grinning a tiny bit.

Gillian rolled her eyes. "Ugh. I hate French. Francis always talks in French when he wants to annoy me."

"How do you know him, anyway?" Maddie asked curiously, jotting down Gillian's name on the worksheet.

"Our parents are friends, so they figured we should be, too," Gillian replied, shrugging her slender shoulders. "I couldn't stand him at first. I thought he was a little pansy. He cried when I destroyed his sand castle in their backyard sandbox. But it was in the way of my awesome kingdom."

Maddie snorted, trying not to laugh too hard. "You made him cry?"

Gillian nodded, smirking. "He cried a lot when we were little. My dad made me apologize, and I offered to let him in my tree house even though he was lame, and we became friends after that. He's not as much of a wimp as he used to be, thank God, or I wouldn't be able to deal with it."

"I see," Maddie noted, smiling to herself. "Um…okay. Say one interesting thing about yourself in French."

"Everything about me is interesting," Gillian said matter of factly. "Hmm…where to begin…" She rested her chin on her folded fingers on the desk, staring out into space. "Oh, okay. One time when I was little, I kissed my best friend because we both thought she was a guy. Turns out she wasn't," she added with a laugh. "Not like it mattered to me, though."

"What do you mean?" Maddie asked curiously, not bothering to correct her for using English. Everyone else around them had reverted to English, anyway. There were only a few minutes of class.  
"Oh, it didn't matter cause I had a crush on her anyway," Gillian said, smiling fondly at the memory. "Too bad she's straight. But what can you do, right?"

"Uh, right," Maddie said, fumbling for an articulate response. She hadn't met anyone so upfront about their sexual orientation except Francis, but then, he hit on just about anybody he found attractive, so she tended to ignore it. So then, was Gillian flirting with her earlier? The thought made her flush a little, but she wasn't sure why. She definitely liked guys. Definitely. She had even had a boyfriend for a few months last year, a senior named Lars who smoked a lot.

"Dude, you okay? You're spacing out," Gillian said, waving a hand in her face. "I think it's your turn to say something interesting."

"Um, okay. I'm from Quebec, originally," she said proudly.

"Canadian, eh?" Gillian joked.

"Haven't heard that one before," Maddie deadpanned, making the older girl laughed.

"Ha! But it's better when I make the joke. Okay, what's next...these are so lame, man. What's your favorite color?"

Maddie scribbled down something on her syllabus. "Um...red, probably. But I like all colors, really."

"Mine's black! Specifically, black with white. The most awesome colors."

"Okay, so that would be _noir et blanc_," Maddie supplied, adding it to her list of Gillian traits. "Uh, are you writing any of this down, Gillian?"

"You can call me Gil if ya want," the albino girl said, yawning a little. "And no. I have it all memorized. I'm just that good." She winked, and went back to her sketching on the back of her paper.

Maddie sighed. "Alright then. Let's see what we have left…" Places you would like to visit, favorite books, favorite bands. By the time class was over, she learned that Gillian's favorite place in the world was Berlin, Germany—"Berlin has such a badass history!"-, her favorite book was _War and Peace_ by Leo Tolstoy, although she really liked Ernest Hemingway novels, and her favorite band was some strange German disco group that Maddie had never heard of. And she insisted on telling her all of that in English.

"You know, you're going to have to use French in this class eventually," Maddie pointed out knowingly, as they began to pack up. "Madame Dubois will make you."

"French is so lame though," Gillian sulked, shoving all of her books at once into a rather tattered black knapsack. "Especially compared to German. But then, everything is pretty lame compared to German."

"Why do you like German so much?" Maddie asked, ignoring the slight against her favorite language. She smiled apologetically at Madame Dubois as they walked out of class together, heading down the stairs.

"'Cause I was born in Germany," Gillian answered, skipping down the stairs two at a time. She spun around at the bottom of the stairs and turned to beam up at the Canadian girl, hands planted on her hips in a ridiculous pose. She kind of reminded her of Amelia, always striking weird poses to make her friends laugh. "I lived there until I was ten, and then we moved here for sixth and seventh grade, and then Seoul, and then Copenhagen, and now here again! I can teach ya some time, if you want!" She added helpfully.

"Maybe," Maddie said uncertainly, following her out the doors into the bright September afternoon. She spotted Arthur waiting in his old Ford Anglia at the very edge of the parking lot and waved. "My ride's here. It was nice talking with you, Gillian."

"You too," Gillian said, giving her a little salute. "I gotta go pick up my baby bro, anyway. He's gotta be around here somewhere. Oh—HEY, LUDWIG!" She hollered at a tall, broad-shouldered sophomore that Maddie vaguely recognized. "There's my cute little bro! Bye, Maddie!" She waved enthusiastically and raced across the lawn to hug him, startling the quiet Japanese girl at his side.

Maddie chuckled a little as she weaved through the student parking lot to where Arthur was waiting.

"Where's Amelia?" She asked, climbing into the back. She never sat in the passenger seat, even though she knew Arthur wouldn't mind. Somehow it was an unspoken agreement that that was reserved for Amelia. "She doesn't have practice today, does she?"

"I don't think so, not on the first day, anyway," Arthur said with a sigh. "That girl's always late. How were your classes?"

"Alright. And yours?"

"Not too bad. English will be good this year, I think," he said happily. "We're studying British literature this year."

"Your favorite," she teased, smiling even though he wasn't facing her.

He turned around in his seat, his eyes lighting up with excitement. "It's the best!" He said proudly. "We're starting with the Romantic era! You're the only one who understands, Maddie. I swear, half of our school is illiterate."

"Heh, I believe that," Maddie said softly, pulling out a paperback from her school bag to read while they waited for Amelia. Barely a minute later, there was a loud rapping on the window, startling both of its occupants.

Arthur sighed heavily and reached over to unlock the passenger door.

"Sorry I'm late," she apologized, crashing into the seat. "I got into an argument with this guy in my physics class about—well, it doesn't matter now. He was wrong. Hey, Artie, can we swing by McDonald's? All that work made me really thirsty for a Coke!"

Arthur started the car and rolled out of the parking lot in his rickety old car, flipping off Antonio and Francis, who pretended to run in front of his car before vanishing out of sight. "Idiots," he growled as they turned out onto the highway. "And no. I thought you said you were trying to lay off the sodas, Amelia."

"When did I say that?" She said indignantly. "How was your day, Maddie?" She asked, swiveling around to face her sister.

"Put your seat belt on."

"Ughhhhh—"

"It was good," Maddie said quietly. "I think I made a new friend."

"Aw, I'm proud," Amelia teased, grinning. "Oh, and I asked Antonio at lunch, and that Gillian girl was on my soccer team a few years ago! I'm gonna try to convince her to join the girl's soccer team here, and then we'll totally beat the guys! You'll come to our scrimmage this weekend, right?"

"Sure," Maddie said. "Why not?" She tried to imagine Gillian playing soccer. She had a pretty small frame, so she was probably pretty fast. Maddie didn't really care about soccer, but she liked to go to Amelia's games. She knew that it meant a lot to her. And Francis usually dragged her to the guy's soccer games to watch Antonio play, so she knew most of the team, even if they didn't know her. And maybe she'd see Gillian there. She smiled a little at the thought, and folded down the corner of her page for later reading. "I'll be there."

* * *

_Please R&R if you like it uwu_

_Also, I want a cute French title for the story, but I can't think of any English phrases I really like enough to make them French. So if you have any suggestions, let me know! Nothing too strong though, like je t'aime. That's more serious than I'm going for. Oh, and in case the human names are confusing:_

_Maddie Williams: fem!Canada_

_Amelia Jones: fem!America_

_Arthur Kirkland: England_

_Francis Bonnefoy: France_

_Antonio Carriedo: Spain_

_Gillian Beilschmidt: fem!Prussia_

_Sakura Honda: fem!Japan_

_Carlos Suarez: Cuba_

_Madame Dubois: Monaco _

_Lovino Vargas: South Italy_

_Feliciana Vargas: fem!North Italy_

_Vash Zwingli: Switzerland_

_Ludwig Beilschmidt: Germany_

_I'm not sure how often everyone is going to be appearing, but these are just for reference, I do like to have minor characters lying around. There will probably (definitely) be some UK/fem!US, and some minor Spamano and Ger/fem!Ita too uwu And some one-sided FrUK, it seems..._


	2. No Good with Words

**A/N: Whoo, I got four favorites on the first chapter already! I am so excited to be writing this, y'all. Please bear with me. I'm trying not to make it too cheesy, but...**

* * *

Before Maddie knew it, the first week of school was behind her. She already had a small project over stoichiometry due on Tuesday, but luckily she had Sakura as her partner, so it wouldn't be too difficult. She also had about three chapters of _A Separate Peace_ to read by Thursday, but since she really enjoyed it, finishing it wouldn't be a problem. She had a lot of math homework, but she could do that on Sunday. So really, even though she would much rather have spent her Saturday inside watching Downtown Abbey with Kuma in her lap and a steaming mug of green tea in her hand, she didn't really have an excuse not to go to the soccer scrimmage with Francis. Besides, she had promised Amelia that she would go.

And that was how she found herself sitting on the chilly metal bleachers at the school soccer field on Saturday, grateful for the extra warmth of Francis' navy blue peacoat. It was uncharacteristically chilly for September, and Maddie already regretted being here. "Are you sure you're not c-cold?" Maddie asked her cousin, who now wore only a green-and-blue striped v-neck and his favorite pair of designer jeans.

"I'm fine," he said dismissively. "I have to look out for my favorite cousin, don't I? Ah, I see our Amelia!" The blond teenager pointed towards the north end of the soccer fields, where they could see Amelia warming up with the rest of her team. So far, only nine of the guys had shown up to the scrimmage, but their captain refused to be discouraged. They could see Antonio giving his team a pep talk and gesturing enthusiastically.

"Why is he so intense about this? I thought this was just a scrimmage," Maddie wondered aloud, burrowing deeper into Francis' coat as a freezing wind swept through the bleachers.

"_Je ne sais pais_," he answered with a shrug. "But he lives for soccer. You should have seen him when England beat Spain for the World Cup title last year. I actually thought he was going to die."

Suddenly, a flash of silver to her left caught Maddie's attention. She leaned forward from her spot on the third row and peered through her glasses, trying to confirm who she thought it was.

"Looks like Amelia convinced Gil to join," Francis remarked, following her gaze. "Good. Maybe she'll stop spending so much time at my house. I woke up this morning and she was eating breakfast with _Maman_ and playing with my dog." He sighed deeply.

"How did she get into your house?" Maddie asked, giggling at the mental image.

"My mother adores her," Francis said sourly. "Her and Antonio both. I think she likes them more than me, as hard as that is to believe."

"Incredible," Maddie agreed sarcastically, ducking when he pretending to smack her in the back of the head.

"Smartass."

The two cousins were drawn out of their conversation when someone blew a whistle to start the game. The players raced for the ball in the center of the freshly chalked field, cleats pounding against the turf in a flurry of limbs and jerseys.

Antonio took possession and began to run down the girls' side of the field, passing to another senior named Mathias when the girls' soccer captain, Caterina Oliveira*, blocked his path. Mathias ran through their defense easily with his much larger frames, stopping short when Gillian snuck up on his left and deftly maneuvered the ball away.

"She's quick," Maddie marveled, watching her pale legs move swiftly back and forth as she charged down the field, her face shining with excitement and exertion.

"_Oui_," Francis agreed. "I think she may be even faster than Amelia, but don't tell her I—ANTONIO, WHAT WAS THAT?" He shouted, when Antonio accidentally crashed into a sophomore defender named Lovino in his eagerness to avoid Caterina. The Italian boy immediately proceeded to cuss him out, despite his captain's frantic apologies.

"I thought we were here to cheer on Amelia," Maddie said suspiciously, wincing as the angry Brazilian girl went after Antonio.

Francis shrugged. "I do not take sides. And anyway, Gillian would have forced me to take you with me."

"Wha—why?" The Canadian girl asked, flustered all of a sudden.

"I think she's taken a shine to you," Francis noted, turning away from the fast-paced match to smile at her. "She says you're going to help her pass French. Which is silly, because who better to teach her than _moi_?" He gestured grandly to himself.

"You know, it's probably because you say things like that," Maddie said wisely, cringing a little when Amelia tried to get the ball from a Swiss student named Vash and ended up taking them both down. "Oh, Amelia," she sighed.

"Pffttt, look at his face!" Francis guffawed as Vash sent her a venomous glare, ignoring her offer to help him back onto his feet. "Ah, there she goes!" he cried, jumping to his feet as Gillian took possession again. "Go, Gillian, go, go, go, G—YES!"

The albino girl scored, giving a triumphant whoop and smacking a laughing Antonio on the ass as she sprinted back to her side of the field.

"Uh, it looked like she was a midfielder," Maddie said, confused. "Did she change positions? I didn't think she was supposed to be that far up field." From the way Caterina pulled her aside and scolded the smaller girl, she didn't think so. Gillian simply shrugged and turned to face the bleachers. When she spotted her friends, she grinned and waved with such enthusiasm that Maddie found herself smiling, too.

"Yes, well, Gillian has always been quite fond of being the center of attention," Francs said dryly, waving regally back at his friend.

After the game ended—the girls won, 9-5—Amelia raced over to where they sat waiting, panting heavily and sweating profusely, but looking quite pleased overall. "Hey!" She called happily, pausing in front of the bleachers and beaming up at them. "I'm so glad you guys could make it! Did you see my goal?"

"How could we have missed it? You screamed 'GOAAAAL' and then took your jersey off and ran back," Francis commented, standing up and stretching. "I kind of wish Arthur had been here for that. He would have been scandalized, I'm sure." He smirked at the thought.

"Yeah, but he works on Saturdays," Amelia said with a little sigh, knocking back the rest of her electric blue Gatorade. She hopped up three rows of bleachers and sat down next to Maddie, unlacing her cleats. "So I saw that Lars is back," she said to her sister, nodding at the Dutch boy that talked with Antonio and Mathias on the other side of the field. "I guess he got held back. I'm glad you stopped dating that guy, Mads," she said, frowning.

Maddie shrugged. _I only stopped dating him because he called you stupid one time_, she thought, but didn't say. She had really liked Lars. He was cute, and yeah, he didn't talk much, but he could be sweet sometimes. And, okay, she had been really flattered that some obscure senior had taken notice of her as a dorky freshman. She didn't feel anything for him now, but it still irked her when Amelia tried to tell her who she should and shouldn't date. She was about to make a snarky remark about Amelia's own dating history, but she was distracted by a shirtless Antonio, who came jogging up to them, carrying Gillian on his back.

"Good game," Antonio said sincerely to Amelia. "I would give you a high five, but—" He shrugged, jostling Gillian a little to indicate that his hands weren't free.

"But losers have to carry the winners around," Gillian finished for him, smirking. "But I guess you can put me down now. The awesome has to address her adoring fans." Antonio dropped his arms, and she slid off his back. Her cheeks were flushed with exercise, and her bright red eyes gleamed with mischief. "I heard you screaming, Frannie," she said cheerfully. "You sounded like a soccer mom. I loved it."

"Sometimes, I feel like I _am_ your mother," Francis agreed, handing her a Ziploc bag of oranges that he had been saving. She took them greedily. "Where would you three be without me?"

Amelia rolled her blue eyes, standing up and hopping down from the bleachers. "Don't include me in your weird little family," she said. "I don't need you to mother me, too. But, uh, can you drop me and Maddie off soon? 'Cause Dad is grilling steaks tonight, and I don't wanna be late." She did look rather anxious at the thought of missing dinner.

"_Oui_, little piggy," her cousin agreed, fishing his keys out of his back pocket. "Come on, then."

"Hey, I am not a pig, you jerk," Amelia protested, jogging after him as he headed towards his flashy Aston Martin.

Maddie smiled shyly at the other two. "Well, I guess I'd better go, then. I'll see you in French, Gillian." She turned to go, but a pair of slender, pale arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her back.

"Thanks for coming!" The German girl said gleefully. Maddie didn't really have the heart to remind her that her sister was the one who asked her to go to the game in the first place.

"Um, yeah, sure," she mumbled, flushing a little. She wasn't used to people outside of her family touching her, but somehow she didn't mind with Gillian. And from the way she interacted with her other friends, hugging and piggy back rides and tackling were very common Gillian displays of affection. "It was fun."

Gillian released her and stepped back to stand with Antonio, who was scanning the fields to make sure that all of his team had rides home. "Come on, Gil, I think Vash needs a ride," he said, tugging on the sleeve of her pink and blue jersey. "And it looks like it might rain." He glanced up at the sky, which looked like it might open up at any moment and release a torrent of water.

"Aw, Toni," she complained, but he was adamant.

"Bye, Mandy," he said to Maddie, smiling.

She sighed, but didn't correct him. "See you guys around." She turned and ran back to Francis' car as it began to drizzle, barely ducking inside before it began to pour.

September flew by in a blur of pep rallies, soccer games, cram sessions, fitness grams, and graphing linear equations. It was finally the weekend again, and there wasn't a soccer game for once, so Maddie was curled up in her red and white quilt on her bed, buried in a makeshift pillow fort with her laptop out. She leaned back with a happy sigh after her third episode in a row of Downtown Abbey ended, and clicked the play button for the fourth one. Amelia was out with Arthur today, and her parents were visiting some friends across town, so she had the house all to herself and Kuma. Just how she liked it.

"Kumaaaa," she cooed to her grossly overweight, fluffy white cat, who stared at her balefully from the edge of her bed. The cat flicked her tail in annoyance and continued to regard her with those wide blue eyes. For some reason, she never responded to her name. "Come to mama~" She reached over and hauled her into her lap, nuzzling the top of her head. "Don't you want to spend all day inside watching Netflix with me?" She asked her cat as she stretched out on her bed.

Kuma saw her chance when her owner laid down and lunged off of the bed, retreating to the windowsill, where she could watch for Maddie's parents to come home. "Fine," Maddie said, glaring at her pet. "I'll be fine. _Alone_." She was halfway through another episode when her phone began to buzz violently. Startled, she unlocked it and glanced down at it curiously.

_You have six new texts._

_Wow, I must have been out of it_, Maddie mused as she began to read them.

_**Gillian B., 4:07 p.m.:** Hey birdie :D_

_** Gillian B., 4:07 p.m.:** Whatcha up to?_

_** Gillian B., 4:08 p.m.:** Sorry I didn't text you back last night. I was watching El Orfanato with Antonio. Don't ever watch it._

_** Gillian B., 4:09 p.m.:** Yo, you there? Did you still want to study today? _

_** Gillian B., 4:10 p.m.:** I mean, I don't really want to study. But I figured you did._

_** Gillian B., 4:10 p.m.:** I'll just go bother Ludwig._

_** Gillian B., 4:11 p.m.:** Or Eli. I should probably work out. But I have Cheetos._

Chuckling, Maddie typed in her response.

**_Maddie W., 4:12 p.m.:_** _Hey Gillian. I'm just watching TV on my computer. Is that my new nickname or something? Yeah, we should probably study. Do you want to come over?_

The message barely sent when her phone buzzed again.

_**Gillian B., 4:13 p.m.:** Yup! Cause you're cute, like a little bird! Except that you don't molt. I'm assuming. I'll have to confirm this for myself._

_** Gillian B., 4:13 p.m.:** SWEET PARTY AT MADDIE'S :DDD_

_** Maddie W., 4:15 p.m.:** No. But we can study. It'll be a study party._

_** Gillian B., 4:15 p.m.:** …_

_** Gillian B., 4:16 p.m.:** … ..._

_** Gillian B., 4:17 p.m.:** That's just depressing :|_

_** Gillian B., 4:18 p.m.:** Okay, where do you live?_

She texted Gillian her address and tossed her phone on the bed, leaning back against her pillows to check Facebook briefly before glancing around her room. "I should probably clean up a bit," she realized with a sigh. Her clothes were folded on the edge of the bed where Kuma recently was, but they still needed to go in her drawers…and now, they were covered in cat hair. She jumped off of her bed and frantically began to stuff things in various compartments, picking up discarded papers and throwing them in the trashcan. Kuma watched her from the windowsill, her large eyes following her owner as the Canadian girl dashed about her bedroom.

For some reason, Maddie felt the need to check her appearance. She stared at the mirror forlornly, a bit taken aback by her rather homeless appearance. Since it was the weekend, she hadn't bothered to put on make up. She wore a Team Canada hockey shirt from 2002 and a pair of yellow sweatpants that didn't even remotely match the cheerful red and white of her shirt. She sighed, trying to work some of the kinks out of her hair. Oh well. It wasn't like Gillian cared, right? _But I care_, she thought, frowning. She walked over to her drawers, rifling through its contents for something slightly less middle-aged man in nature. She held up a cute, flower-patterned shirt critically. "That might do," she mused.

"It's pretty cute," someone agreed from the doorway.

Maddie screamed and dropped the shirt, backpedaling furiously. "Oh my God, Gillian, you scared me!" She said, feeling more than a little irritated at her inconsiderate friend. "When-when did you get here? And how did you get inside?" She added suspiciously.

Gillian smiled warmly. She was obviously wearing her weekend attire too—some 80's band t-shirt that Maddie was pretty sure her stepdad loved, and black skinny jeans. Her pale hair was in its usual state of glorious disarray, hanging past her shoulders. She leaned against the white frame of her bedroom, her maroon eyes curiously flitting about the interior of the room. "Oh, your door was unlocked," she said helpfully, walking inside. "I think I scared your dog. He ran away when I tried to pet him."

"You could've knocked," Maddie muttered. Her heart was still racing wildly. "Did you bring your notes, at least?"

"Notes?" Gillian asked blankly.

Maddie sighed.

"I'm just kidding, Mads. What kinda person do you think I am?" She hopped on her bed and reached for Maddie's laptop.

"What are you doing with that?" She asked nervously. She didn't like people messing with her laptop.

Gillian looked up with a smirk. "What, you got porn on here or something?"

"N-no! Of course not!" She spluttered indignantly, taking it away from her. "I just don't like people going through my things," she added pointedly, but the other girl didn't take the hint.

"Yeah, Ludwig's like that too," Gillian said. "I like your house. It's cute. Where's your family? I wanna meet the other Canucks."

Maddie snorted a little. She could only imagine Amelia's reaction to that. "Only my mom's from Canada. My stepdad and stepsister are Americans."

"Oh, I gotcha," Gillian noted, reaching for her backpack from the floor. She fished out their French textbook and dropped it on the bed unceremoniously. Various sticky notes and pieces of paper stuck out of it.

Maddie opened it curiously, retrieving a biology worksheet. "Do you ever use this for French?" She asked in exasperation.

"No, but it is a good placeholder," Gillian answered, grinning mischievously. "Chapter six stores my government notes for me."

Maddie sighed deeply, rubbing the bridge of her nose where her glasses perched wearily. "Okay. Do you want to start with grammar, or vocabulary?"

"I don't care. You pick."

But after ten minutes of going over basic French vocabulary, Gillian announced that she was done. She lay back on the bed, placing Maddie's laptop on her stomach. "Mmmm, so warm," she mumbled. "I could go to sleep here." She closed her eyes, and Maddie found herself staring at her closed lavender lids, trying to figure out what color her long eyelashes were. Gillian didn't wear mascara, but she still found it hard to tell whether her eyelashes were blonde, or white like the rest of her hair.

"Gillian, don't you care about school at all?" She asked with another sigh, feeling more than a trifle annoyed with her friend.

Those eyes flashed open, pinning her in place. "A little," she said, with uncharacteristic anger. "I'm not stupid, you know. I just don't like people telling me what to do and when to do it."

Maddie blinked in surprise and swallowed nervously. "I'm sorry," she began, a knee-jerk reaction, but Gillian sat up, shaking her head.

"No, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap," the older girl said apologetically, scratching the back of her head awkwardly. "I just get annoyed when people ask me that. You know. What are you gonna do with your life, Gillian? Where are you going to college, Gillian? Why can't you be more like your little brother, Gillian?" She sighed angrily, tugging on a silvery strand of hair and glaring at it meaningfully. "I think I may dye this bit blue," she said suddenly, changing the subject. "Thoughts?"

"Gil," Maddie interrupted. "I'm sorry. Okay? We can do something else."

Gillian's expression softened and she smiled. "Okay." She rolled off of Maddie's bed and danced over to the windowsill, sweeping up Kuma in her arms.

"Uh, be careful, she's kind of feisty—" Maddie warned, but Kuma actually began purring.

"Of course," Maddie muttered. "She would like you more than me." _Traitor_, she thought.

"What'd you say? You're so quiet sometimes," Gillian said, grinning as Kuma rubbed her face against her Boston t-shirt. "Hey, you got any food?"

"Eh, it's nothing. Sure, uh, I can check…"

"Hell yeah!" Gillian marched ahead of her, edging the door open with her foot so she could hold onto Kuma with both hands. "What do you feed your cat? He weighs like, fifty pounds."

"Kuma is a girl, and yeah, she is pretty fat," Maddie agreed, following her down the stairs. Gillian already seemed to know where the kitchen was, leading Maddie to wonder exactly how much exploring she had done on her own. "It's because Amelia always gives her bits of her food at dinner. I don't think French fries are good for animals."

"Ha, I like Amelia," Gillian commented, sitting down at the breakfast table and looking up at her expectantly. "Well? I am waiting to be fed."

"I'm so sorry to keep you waiting," Maddie said sarcastically, walking over to her pantry to see what they had. "Uh…" The shelves were disappointingly bare. She knew they had had some Oreos as of last night, but she suspected that a certain someone had eaten the rest of them when she stayed up on the phone til two last night. "Oh, we have Doritos, some Poptarts…"

"We shall have both," Gillian announced grandly. "Can we watch TV too?"

Maddie burst out laughing at her ridiculously imperial tone, covering her mouth with her free hand as she deposited the requested food items in front of her friend.

"You shouldn't hide your laugh," Gillian said unexpectedly, around crunchy bites of unnaturally orange chips. Her nice smile was rather ruined by bits of Doritos. "You have a nice laugh, Mads."

Maddie's hand froze as she reached for the box of unopened Poptarts. "Uh, thanks," she stuttered. Why did Gillian always manage to throw her off like that? It wasn't like _she_ was being weird. It was her, Maddie, making things weird. Frowning, she sat down across from Gillian, tearing off a bit of pastry angrily. She reached around in her chair, straining to reach the TV that sat on the counter a few feet away. She managed to grab the remote without getting up and the TV flickered to life. "Boring, boring, boring," she mused, surfing through the channels with expert speed. "Oh! Do you like Pawn Stars?" She asked excitedly, turning around to look at Gillian for approval.

Gillian snorted. "Sure. If that's what you want to watch." Maddie just looked so cute when she was excited about something, Gillian didn't really have the heart to deny her. Even if watching Pawn Stars sounded about as fun as listening to Roderich rant about the decadent state of contemporary music.

"Awesome," Maddie said happily. She didn't know why, she just loved terrible TV shows.

When her parents got home, they found both girls in the kitchen, laughing at a new episode of What Not to Wear.

"I'm pretty sure even I don't dress that badly," Gillian was saying, snickering.

"Heh. That's not what Francis says," Maddie said mischievously.

"Hey, Maddie!" Her stepdad boomed, walking in through the side kitchen door with an armful of groceries. "Hey, Maddie's friend."

"Hey, Maddie's dad," Gillian returned easily, standing up. "Do you need some help with those?"

Maddie shot her friend a look. She suspected that Gillian never helped carry groceries in at home and was just purposely trying to make her look bad.

"Well, how nice! Maddie could learn a thing from you," her stepdad teased, setting down an armful of boxed foods on the counter. "What's your name?"

"Gillian Beilschmidt," she said, grinning at Maddie, who gave her stepdad a withering stare. "I'm in Maddie's French class!"

"Oh, you're the one she talks about all the time," Maddie's mother said in her light French Canadian accent, as she stepped into the kitchen after Alfred with the eggs and bread. "How nice to finally have you over, dear."

"You talk about me?" Gillian asked, turning to her friend with a toothy smile that stretched practically to her ears.

"_Maman_," Maddie complained.

"Don't you _Maman_ me. You and Gillian can get the rest. There's only two bags left in there, but it's about to rain, so hurry."

Maddie sighed gustily but followed her friend out the door to the family Sedan.

"You were totally sucking up in there," she accused her friend.

"What? Me?" The other girl asked, handing her the lighter bag. "_Je suis innocent_!"

"Right," Maddie said, rolling her eyes. "Don't try to use French with me _now._"

Gillian ended up declining the Jones-Williams' invitation to dinner with an unnecessary amount of posturing and gesturing, in Maddie's opinion, but agreed to come over some other time. "I like your folks," she said happily as Maddie walked her to the door. "They seem nice."

"Yes, well, they certainly like you," the Canadian girl noted, trying and failing to hide a smile. "See you in class, Gil."

"Bye!" She hugged her quickly and dashed out the door, cursing at the rain that began to drum down on her pale hair. She turned and waved at Maddie before slipping inside her black car, her tires screeching against the slick pavement as she sped off. Maddie winced.

That girl was going to be the death of her.

* * *

_I'm laughing a little because the roster for the guy's soccer team looks suspiciously similar to the Santa Maria crew from my steampunk fic, but what can you do..._

_R&R? Please? Maybe?_

_*Caterina Oliviera - APH Brazil. I know, an OC, but she seems like she'd be super cool and soccer-crazy :D Also, she doesn't like Antonio..._

_Some other soccer OCs you may see-just Cameroon for right now, but I may mention some other countries that are known to be really into soccer._


	3. Ho, Hey

**A/N: ? So? This story was supposed to be from ****_Maddie's_**** POV? What happened? ...I don't know. Maddie's not even really in this chapter. I'm sorry. BUT, the next chapter will be really awesome, I promise. So have some silly Bad Touch Trio bonding time to tide you over.**

* * *

Gillian loved to run. She loved hearing the _whish_ of her ponytail as she sprinted down the field, she lived for the burning in her lungs when she raced ahead of the other girls, and she loved, more than anything, to win.

"That's nine," their coach called from the sidelines as the girls completed another set of sprints. "Last one, make it count!"

"One more," she puffed to herself and took off, pushing hard to finish ahead of her team mates. She sucked in air like a drowning woman surfacing from the water for the first time in ages, her cleats barely making contact with the ground until she finally crossed the thinly demarcated white line dividing the soccer fields in two.

"Good work today, girls," the coach congratulated them, smiling at her as the other girls came in behind her. Gillian bent over, hands on her knees as she struggled to catch her breath. "That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll have a real scrimmage, I promise. Get some rest."

Some of the girls cheered halfheartedly. It had been a hard day of conditioning for everyone with their first official indoor tournament coming up. Grinning, she collapsed on the turf, smiling up at the gray sky. The air felt sharp as it entered her lungs. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes peacefully. She probably should've been wearing something warmer than a thin camisole and volleyball shorts, but she liked the bite of the cold on her bare skin, and she liked to show off, to be perfectly honest. She listened contentedly to the chatter of her team mates as they walked back to their cars. She opened her eyes and looked across the field, where the boys' soccer team was waiting for them to leave. She spotted Tonio stretching by the goal posts and jogged over to join him, a mischievous grin on her face. She heard some wolf whistles at her attire—well, maybe these shorts were a _bit_ tight—as she flopped down next to her best friend and began to stretch. "Hey, handsome," she said, grinning wolfishly.

He looked up and smiled, shaking his head. "You know, you're just encouraging them," he informed her matter-of-factly as he stretched out his calve muscles. He inclined his head towards his team mates. "They won't believe me when I tell them you're not my girlfriend."

"Pft," she snorted. "I'm way too good for you. And then there's the fact that you have a huuuuuge crush on Lovino."

"Gil," Antonio said, color flooding his tanned cheeks. "Knock it off."

"Aww, am I embarrassing my ickle Tonykins in front of his team mates?" She cooed loudly, to the obvious enjoyment of the rest of his team.

"Can I call you ickle Tonykins, too?" Mathias hollered, causing Lars and the tall exchange student from Cameroon to snicker quietly.

Antonio turned to glare at his laughing German friend. "Alright, that's it," he muttered, standing up.

"Haha! Why are you looking at me like that, Tony? H-hey! What are you doing?"

Antonio scooped her up and half dragged, half carried her off the field, grinning mischievously at her futile struggles. Gillian had always been tiny, even when they were little. She resented being carried around, and Francis and Antonio would use that against her whenever she irritated them too much.

"Toni! Put me down!" She hollered, squirming. "I get it, I get it, I won't embarrass you anymore—" It was a lie, of course, but he didn't have to know that. _Gott_, for a short guy he was really strong.

He dropped her unceremoniously offsides, smirking. "I told you not to make fun of me at practice," he said cheerfully, a warning note in his voice.

Gillian got to her feet, brushing herself off with injured dignity. "You're no fun today," she sulked, folding her arms across her chest. "I did you a favor."

Antonio stared at her blankly.

She rolled her eyes and nodded towards the fields, where the boys began warming up. "I definitely made someone jealous," she said, grinning. Twenty yards away, a certain Italian was kicking a soccer ball with murderous force at the goal posts, muttering to himself.

Antonio turned back to her, his expression an interesting mix of incredulous and hopeful. "Lovino? Do you really think so?"

"Duh," Gillian affirmed. "He totally has the hots for el Capitan!" She sang out happily. "Now hurry up and go practice. Luddy has the car tonight and I wanna go hoooome."

"He'll hear you," Antonio hissed. "Just wait here, okay?" He turned and smiled widely at Lovino, who happened to be looking in their direction. But he only scowled and went back to passing the ball back and forth with Vash. Antonio sighed and jogged over to them. "Alright, take a lap!" He yelled, setting off in a circle around the perimeter of the soccer fields.

Gillian smiled and parked herself on the bleachers, starting to wish she had brought a jacket as the sun began to set. To distract herself, she pulled out her phone and checked her messages.

**Luddy!, 6:30 p.m.: Will you be home for dinner? Vati wants to know. **

** Luddy!, 7:09 p.m.: Gillian, are you still at practice? I thought it ended at six thirty.**

** Luddy!, 7:50 p.m.: Please answer your phone. **

She chuckled and typed out a response.

**The Awesome, 7:59 p.m.: Hey bro! Going to Toni's for food. Don't wait for me. **

Antonio hadn't said anything about dinner, but she had been deprived of his mother's cooking long enough, and she knew that Mrs. Carriedo wouldn't mind. Next.

**Fran-fran, 7:15 p.m.: Are you doing anything tonight?**

** The Awesome, 8:01 p.m.: Gonna eat dinner at Toni's and watch a movie. Wanna come over?**

Half a minute later.

**Fran-fran, 8:02 p.m.: Did you ask Toni first? I think he mentioned having a biology test to study for this weekend. **

She tutted in disapproval. Silly Francis. They always invited themselves over to each other's houses. Well, okay, she was the one who did it the most. But she would totally be fine with it if they did it to her, too.

**The Awesome, 8:03 p.m.: When has that stopped us before?**

** Fran-fran, 8:07 p.m.: ****_Oui_****, that is true. See you tonight.**

She scrolled down to check the last message and felt a goofy smile spread across her face.

**Birdie (:, 7:20 p.m.: Hey, gil. You will be pleased to know that Amelia said 'awesome' no less than three times at dinner today. I'm starting to worry, haha. I'm just kidding. lol**

Gillian chuckled, hunched over her phone in the chilly night. The tips of her fingers started to feel numb, but she didn't really mind.

**The Awesome, 8:10 p.m.: MADDIE! :D I'm glad my awesomeness is spreading. **

** Birdie (:, 8:12 p.m.: God help us. **

** The Awesome, 8:13 p.m.: D: MaddieeEEeeEEEee! You're so mean to me. But it's okay. I have graciously decided to forgive you, for helping me pass that last test.**

** Birdie (:, 8:17 p.m.: What a relief.**

** Birdie (:, 8:18 p.m.: How do you think you did? I was kind of worried about the writing section :/**

** The Awesome, 8:21 p.m.: Pfttt, I bet you aced it. I probably got a C. I don't care about that class too much, lol.**

** The Awesome, 8:24 p.m.: Hey, what are you doing for Halloween!**

** Birdie (:, 8:30 p.m.: I'm just handing out candy with Amelia this year. Why?**

A huge grin formed on Gillian's face as a plan began to emerge in the back of her mind.

**The Awesome, 8:32 p.m.: Lame. You should come to my totally badass Halloween party instead. **

She didn't have one planned yet, but she would! And Francis would be fine with having it at his place. Hopefully. Her dad was kind of strict about partying. She sighed.

**Birdie (:, 8:35 p.m.: Um…I'll have to think about it.**

** The Awesome, 8:36 p.m.: Pleeeease? pleeASSssssEEEeeEEEeee**

** The Awesome, 8:37 p.m.: Pls**

** The Awesome, 8:39 p.m.: Maddie?**

** Birdie (:, 8:40 p.m.: Maybe. :P**

Sighing, Gil put her phone away and stretched, popping her shoulders. The guys should be just about done with practice…sure enough, she spotted Antonio bounding over like a giant puppy, his green eyes bright with the excitement of a good practice.

"Ready?" He asked, his characteristic sunny smile in place.

"Yup. So, hey, we should have a Halloween party," she informed him, bouncing over to his faded blue pick-up truck, tugging impatiently on the door handle until he reached over and unlocked it for her.

"Sounds like fun. Can I invite the team?" He asked.

"Yeah yeah, invite all your little boytoys along. It's gonna be awesome."

He ignored her comment and turned on the heater, shivering as the car slowly heated up.

"Oh, and Francis is coming over to watch a movie at your place later," she added helpfully, turning on the radio and humming appreciatively to the song.

"I thought you didn't like Jack Johnson," he commented as they rolled down the empty streets away from the high school playing fields. "Text my mom and tell her we're coming home, okay? She wasn't expecting guests for dinner." Unlike Francis, he didn't sound passive aggressive when he said that last bit. Gillian practically lived at Antonio's house, mostly because he was too nice to kick her out. He handed her his beat-up Nokia phone.

"Jack Johnson is okay," she replied, her frozen fingers struggling to tap out the text on the tiny keyboard. "I just like to make fun of you for listening to girly music."

"It's better than German metal," Antonio pointed out as they pulled into the driveway of the small, Georgian-style home.

"Rammstein is great," she protested, following him into the house as he called out, "We're home!"

She skipped in ahead of him, dumping her sports bag at the foot of the stairs in the entryway and passing through the kitchen. "Hi, Mom," she said happily, inhaling the aroma of warm food.

"Hello, _mija_," Mrs. Carriedo said affectionately, turning away from the stove for a moment to smile at her son's talkative friend. "How was practice?"

"Good," Gillian and Antonio answered simultaneously.

Antonio hugged her from behind and made a not-so-subtle swipe at the bread basket to her right, but she swatted at his hand with a wooden spoon instinctively. "Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, do not get your dirty, sweaty hands over my freshly cooked food until you have washed them," she said sternly. "I did not raise you in a zoo."

"Sorry, Mama," he said, kissing her clumsily on the cheek and glaring at Gillian's snickering. "Come on, we can watch TV in my room until dinner's ready."

Gillian loved being at Antonio's. His mom always doted on her—rather like Francis' mom, only less strict—and she loved playing with his younger siblings. The only problem was Isabella, his older sister, who disliked both of them immensely. One of Gillian's greatest joys in life was pranking her with Antonio and sometimes Francis, who often opted out because he used to have a crush on her. But tonight, they enjoyed a relatively peaceful dinner at the Carriedo house. Antonio imitated Isabella's facial expressions, to the joy of Gillian and the younger Carriedo children, and Gillian got to eat three full servings of _arroz con pollo_. Isabella had finally realized that Antonio was making fun of her and looked like she was about to reach across the table and strangle her younger brother, but fortunately Francis chose to show up at that time.

The doorbell buzzed, and Mrs. Carriedo gave her son a stern look. "You may be excused," she said flatly.

Antonio grinned good-naturedly, causing the youngest Carriedo to burst into giggles again. "I'll get that," he said helpfully, dumping his plate in the sink and racing to the front door. Gillian followed him eagerly.

"Fran Fran!" She said happily, beating Antonio to the door. "So glad you could make it."

"_Oui_," Francis agreed, grinning. "Guess what? I brought the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!"

"Ooooh, a classic," Antonio said appreciatively, closing the door behind him. "_Bien_. I love horror movies," he said happily, waving them upstairs. "Come on! We can use the gameroom. I'll go grab some popcorn!"

Gillian followed him uneasily. Antonio's love of horror movies was kind of weird, in her opinion. The last time they had watched a scary movie was around this time last year, and it had been _The Shining. _Antonio's calm indifference during the entire thing was almost as scary as the deranged father appearing with an ax to kill his family. They sat down on the old leather Ottoman sofa in the small gameroom, waiting for Antonio to start the movie.

"So, Frannie," Gillian said conversationally, grabbing the blanket from the back of the couch and draping it around her shoulders like a queen, "how's life?"

"Good," he replied, stretching out his long arms on the couch behind them. "Papa is in Nice on a business trip and Maman is working all the time…" He sighed, looking older than his eighteen years. "But," he said, brightening, "I ran into Arthur at the library today. He was asleep on one of the tables in the back, so I switched out all of the books in his bag for all these really wonderful art textbooks with nudes on the covers. Ah, you should have seen his face when he tried to leave the library with those and he set off the alarm," he said happily, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "It was beautiful."

Gillian burst into laughter at the mental image. "He's so quick-tempered," she said fondly. "I wish I'd seen that."

"I'm back!" Antonio sang out. He wedged himself in the middle, munching on the popcorn happily, picking up the remote and turning on the TV.

Gillian shifted uneasily as the movie progressed, trying not to jump every time ominous music started playing. She loved Halloween; she loved pranking people, she fucking _loved_ candy, and she loved dressing up, but she didn't really care for horror movies. She knew Francis wasn't as crazy about them, either, and it made her feel a little bit better when they both screamed at the first death.

Antonio laughed. "You should have seen that one coming," he teased his friends, looking largely unaffected. Gillian really didn't like the creepy glow that the television cast on his features.

"Sorry I'm not a _serial killer_ and don't think like one," Gillian snapped, taking away the popcorn bowl aggressively.

They made it to the last thirty minutes without too much screaming, but when Leatherface and the protagonist faced off, Gillian made a point of playing with her phone. She didn't realize that both Antonio and Francis were glaring at her when the theme music from Angry Birds started playing. A callused hand took away her phone, and she looked up, frowning. "Toni," she complained.

"Don't you like the movie?" He asked innocently, with a wicked gleam in his eyes, imitating Leatherface's voice.

"You're not being funny, _mon ami_," Francis grumbled, smacking him in the back of the head.

"You have to watch it all the way through," Antonio said cheerfully, putting an arm around both of them as he leaned back against the couch, mostly to anchor them in place. "This is the best part."

Needless to say, Gillian and Francis did not agree.

"Haven't you seen this before, Francis?" Antonio asked, yawning, as the credits began to roll. He stood up, popping his shoulders, looking perfectly calm.

"_Non_, it is my father's," Francis said stiffly, looking a little shifty eyed as he stood up too. "I'm going to the bathroom. Be a dear and put on something cheerful. I have decided to grace you with my presence for the rest of the night." He wandered down the hall, flicking on all the lights as he did so.

"That sounded pretty gay," Gillian called after him. "Actually, I think I'll sleep over too," she added as an afterthought. "I'll go grab some blankets—"

"Hey, wait, I have an idea," Antonio whispered, an evil grin spreading across his face. He grabbed her hand and raced over to the bathroom, turning off all of the upstairs lights and pulling her into the linen closet a few feet away. He closed the door behind them and started giggling madly.

"Toni, what—"

"Shh," he shushed her, trying to hold in his laughter. He quietly began to make buzzing noises, like a chainsaw.

The sound of running water stopped in the bathroom, and Francis asked, "Gil? Toni? Is that you?"

Gillian muffled a snort, and began to make the sound too. They both got louder and louder until Francis opened the door with a slam. "You're such children," they heard him grumble. They heard the padding of his footsteps as he began to walk down the hall. "Where are you two? I know you're hiding somewhere." He muttered something in French that they didn't catch.

Antonio nodded at Gillian in the dim light and slowly, silently, they eased the door open, peering through the crack to see if they could find him. They could just barely see him heading towards the gameroom.

"Let's jump him," Gillian whispered.

Antonio nodded.

They stepped into the hall, moving with exaggerated slowness until they were right behind him.

"Gillian Maria Beilschmidt—" Francis began, scowling, leaning into the next room.

"BZZZZZZ!" Antonio said loudly, making a chopping action at the back of the taller boy's neck while Gillian tackled him to the ground.

Francis screamed and they fell to the ground in a tangle, Gillian and Antonio laughing so hard they couldn't breathe.

"Oh m-my _God_," Gillian cried, rolling off of her blond friend to the carpet, holding her sides. Tears streamed down the pale girl's face.

"Francis screams like a little girl!" Antonio yelled, shrieking in a rather high pitch when Francis tackled him in retaliation.

"You idiots," Francis shouted, red-faced with anger. "You almost gave me a heart attack, you little shits—"

But the two teenagers kept howling with laughter, no matter how frustrated he looked. They only stopped when they noticed Mrs. Carriedo standing behind Francis, a glower on her normally sunny face. Francis smirked when he saw their frightened expressions. "_Oui_, I can be scary too," he said, brushing himself off. "So don't think about doing that again—" He jumped when a small hand came down on his shoulder, a petrified shriek escaping him instinctively.

"No more screaming," Mrs. Carriedo said sternly, her brown eyes flashing dangerously. "I just put the children to bed."

"_Lo siento, Mama_," Antonio said, trying unsuccessfully to hide his victorious grin.

Gillian nodded, also trying to look repentant. "Sorry," she added.

"It's alright," Mrs. Carriedo said merrily, the cheerful mother once more. She changed emotions so quickly, it gave Gillian whiplash. "You kids have fun. See you in the morning!" She smiled and headed back down the stairs. She didn't even ask if they were spending the night; it was a given most of the time, anyway.

When she left, Francis turned his angry blue eyes on them. "Why do I put up with you two?" He said petulantly, adjusting his luscious golden locks.

"Because you love us?" Antonio offered hopefully, accepting his hand as he stood up, beaming at his friend.

"Because you love _me_," Gillian clarified. "Come on, Frannie, don't be mad. We'll watch Les Miserables now, like you wanted to."

"Okay," Francis agreed quickly. "I suppose I will forgive you." He sighed mightily and collapsed on the couch, taking up far more room than necessary.

"Great, cause I need you to help me plan the Halloween party at your house next week," Gillian remarked, sitting down on the arm of the couch and ruffling his hair.

"Oh yeah," Antonio said. "I'm inviting the soccer team, too."

Francis sighed deeply. "Do I get a say in this?"

"No," they answered simultaneously.

"Okay," Gillian began eagerly, "here's what I have planned…"

* * *

_Wow, I just really love the BTT. Isabella is APH Portugal. As much as I want Portugal to be a sexy guy with a ponytail and serious attitude and rivalry with Spain, I like her as a badass lady who likes to explore too uwu Also, I just like the name Isabella._

_And I've never seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre because I am kind of a France when it comes to horror movies (ew, did I just say that out loud?)  
But yeah, more PruCan action coming up in the next chapter, which I will have out shortly, I just have to add some stuff! Please R&R!_


	4. Tonight's the Kind of Night

**A/N: Writing this put me in a Halloween mood, and it's only August. Sighh**

* * *

Gillian eyed her appearance critically. _Perfect_, she thought, her thin lips curling back from her incisors in a toothy grin. _I look so badass!_ She was dressed as a pirate in a Prussian blue overcoat that went down to mid-thigh, a short, tattered black skirt, and a cream-colored blouse with a mound of frothy lace tumbling down the middle of her top. A giant hat crowned her silvery hair, with a single purple plume jauntily standing atop it. Tall black boots and a see-through eyepatch completed the look, along with a toy sword she had found in Antonio's room.

"Awesome," she told her reflection. As an afterthought, she smeared on some blood red lipstick. She marched downstairs and snagged the keys from the bowl on the kitchen table.

"You sure you don't want to come?" Gillian asked her little brother, who sat at the kitchen table, poring over a chemistry textbook. She glanced at the clock. It was nine thirty on a Friday night, and Ludwig was studying. How depressing.

"I have to study," he said, sighing.

"Aw, Luddy, come on! Sakura will be there! And you know who else will be there?" She grinned hugely, propping her elbows on his textbook so he had to look up, annoyed.

"Who?" Ludwig asked curtly, frowning.

"Feliciana Vargas," Gillian answered brightly, drawing a heart in the air with her fingers.

Ludwig turned bright red, but remained stubbornly oblivious. "I fail to see what that has to do with me," he returned snidely, attempting to remove his sister from his textbook, without success.

"Come on, Lud. I'm your _schwester_. I _know_ these things. Now come on. You need to do something fun." She tugged on his sleeves until he stood up, sighing heavily.

"I will go, only because I know you won't leave me alone otherwise," he said grudgingly. "But I'm not wearing a costume."

"Oh, that's okay," Gillian said amiably, now that she had gotten her way. She led her much taller sibling out the front door to their sleek black car. "You can borrow something from Fran-Fran."

Ludwig looked like he was about to try to get out of the car as she rolled out of the driveway.

"Or not. Don't bail on me now, soldier," she said, grinning as she raced out of the suburbs towards Francis' house, on the outskirts of the city. "It's too late."

"I regret this decision already," Ludwig said, groaning. He finally took in his sister's attire and remarked, "That skirt is kind of short, _schwester_."

"Yup. Gotta show off my badass soccer legs," she returned, laughing at his mortified expression. "Don't make that face. We're going to have fun. Do you know what that is, Lud?" She reached over to ruffle his perfectly combed blond hair.

"_Halt die Klappe_," he returned sourly, staring out the window moodily.

Gillian laughed her typical booming laugh and turned up the radio as loudly as she could. _This is going to be a good night_, she thought to herself, grinning hugely.

Francis' elaborate, colonial-style house appeared in front of them at the end of the street, hidden away behind tall, wrought iron gates. Gillian drove through them after yelling at the speaker and parked in his driveway, far too close to his Aston Martin, and hopped out, grinning at the Halloween decorations. Francis had probably spent most of the afternoon stringing up the pumpkin-shaped lights that lit the sidewalk leading up to to the tall double doors. A fog machine from inside exhaled warm, milky air, leaking out from the open door into the cool night. Pulsing lights and muffled Halloween-themed music trailed outside, looking every bit the illegal teenage party. "Aw, fuck yeah," Gillian said enthusiastically. "Francis really went all out this year!"

She dashed inside, not waiting for her younger brother. She saw a bunch of class mates that she recognized, and a lot that she didn't—it must have been an open invitation, because she even saw some freshman lurking about awkwardly. She snorted. She spotted Feliciana and Sakura talking with some of the students from the swim team, and smiled. Feliciana was dressed as a chef, and she looked adorable. Sakura looked like some character from an anime, Gillian couldn't even begin to guess which one. Feliciana smiled when she saw Gillian approach.

"Hi, Gil!" She said cheerfully, her warm brown eyes shining with excitement. "It was so nice of Francis to let underclassmen come over!"

"Well, you two are alright," Gillian mused. Well, she mostly meant Feliciana. She really liked her. Sakura was kind of weird, but she was one of her brother's best friends, so she put up with her. "I managed to bring Ludwig along, too," she added, beaming. She looked over her shoulder and spotted him talking to some guys from their year, and smirked. "So you two keep an eye on him, okay?"

Both girls nodded obediently.

She then proceeded to elbow her way through the crowds to find her host, who was flirting with a cute freshman by the refreshments table set up outside the kitchen. He was dressed as a Roman, or something, because he was barefoot and draped in a toga that revealed far too much skin for her liking. "Frannie," she said gaily, not liking the way he leaned over the adorable freshman. She didn't know her name, but she looked vaguely familiar. "What happened to your clothing, Spartacus?" She tugged at the flimsy cloth in disapproval.

He turned to her with a slight frown, irritated at the intrusion. "Excuse me," he said gently to the blonde. He looked back at his friend, and raised his eyebrows slightly. "I am Apollo, thank you, and I could ask you the same thing, _ma petit," _he returned, flicking the plume on her hat. "Trying to catch someone's eye, are we?"

For some reason, a certain Canadian came to mind, unbidden, and Gillian felt herself blushing before she quickly looked away with a dismissive, "Ha! I don't need a reason to look smokin' hot."

Intrigued, Francis grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her away from the confused freshman girl, leading her to the living room, where groups of people hung out, playing Mario Party on his Wii or talking in small groups. "That's quite a charming blush," he teased, a wicked gleam in his blue eyes. "Who is she? What fair maiden has captured the heart of my stoic German friend?"

"Shut up, there's no one," she growled, shaking off his hand.

Francis snorted. "Right. Maybe Antonio knows—"

Fortunately, Gillian was spared any further interrogation by the appearance of Maddie and another sophomore named Carlos. He was a boy of medium height with a stocky build, short, dark brown hair, and a slightly annoyed expression on his face. He was dressed as Iron Man. Next to him…

"Madeleine!" Francis exclaimed, pulling her into one of his smothering embraces. "You came! And you look so—"

"Adorable," Gillian blurted out, before she could stop herself.

"Oh, t-thank you," Maddie managed, gently prying herself out of Francis' hug and smiling at the older girl. She really did look cute. She was dressed as a cat, but not one of the risqué kinds of cats that Gillian often saw in adult Halloween stores. She wore black skinny jeans, a white t-shirt with a cute drawing of a cat and the French word for 'meow!' printed across her chest. She had dabbed what must have been pale pink lipstick on the tip of her nose, and she wore a pair of fluffy white cat ears atop her golden brown curls. It was obviously a homemade costume, but it was perfect for Maddie, who was never one for flashy clothing or showing off. It was sweet and modest, just like her. "Oh! Um, you two look nice too! This is my friend Carlos," she added, smiling warmly at the Iron Man next to her, who continued to regard her cousin with a great deal of distrust.

"How nice that the two of you could both make it," Francis purred, his fingers digging into Gillian's shoulder blades until she swatted his hand away, pink-faced and glowering. "My _cousin_?" He hissed into her ear, when Maddie and Carlos excused themselves to get drinks. "You have a crush on my _baby cousin_—"

"It's not a crush," Gillian said defensively, folding her arms across her chest and refusing to look at him. "I just think she's cute, is all," she mumbled.

"Bullshit," her friend told her flatly. The strobe light from the next room cast weird shadows on his disapproving face. "I mean it, Gil. If you hurt her—"

"For Christ's sake, quit being so overprotective," Gillian snapped, her temper rising. She stood on tiptoe so she could really get in his face. He didn't look impressed. "My track record with girls is a helluva lot better than yours, I might point out! She's my friend, alright? And anyway," she added glumly, fiddling with the hem of her skirt, "it's not like she likes girls."

Francis hummed in disapproval still, so she added pointedly, "At least _I_ don't go after freshman girls."

Francis' eyes widened. "Lili? I wasn't hitting on her! We were just talking—do you really think I'd be stupid enough to hit on _Vash Zwingli's baby sister?!" _

"Yes," she answered immediately.

The two friends scowled at each other for a moment longer before the third member of their trio showed up, looking quite merry and a little buzzed. "_Hola_!" He said happily, putting an arm around each of them affectionately.

"Tonio, what are you wearing?" Gillian asked, edging away from him. "And I thought Francis was bad!"

"What?" Antonio asked innocently.

Antonio was dressed as a referee in a standard black and white striped shirt with black shorts, only his shirt was unbuttoned halfway and the shorts were quite a bit shorter than standard soccer shorts. His ref's whistle bounced against his chest as he laughed. "It's great, isn't it? Mathias suggested it as a joke, but then we decided that all of the soccer team should go as sexy refs! I had to borrow these shorts from Isabella." He tugged at the tight black material that only went down to mid-thigh, grinning mischievously.

Francis whistled.

The other two looked around the room and noticed that there did seem to be a rather high number of refs walking around, and that they were all with the soccer team. It was pretty funny, actually, seeing the tall guys like Mathias and Denzel walk around in tiny shorts that made their legs look even longer.

"Well, most of us thought it was funny, anyway," Antonio continued. "Vash didn't. And Lars didn't." He glanced over at his much taller, quieter team mate, who was talking with Mathias in a corner and smoking.

"Hey, I told him not to smoke in my house," Francis said crossly. "Smoke is impossible to get out—," He marched over to them and began to complain to the two taller young men, who looked mostly unfazed.

Gillian frowned, studying the quieter one with hazel eyes. "Lars…that name sounds familiar," she remarked to Antonio as Maddie and Carlos walked back over to them.

"Lars? Lars van Buren?" Maddie asked in surprise. "He's here?" She looked around curiously and easily spotted her lanky ex. "I suppose I should say hello," she mused.

"Don't, Maddie, that guy is shady," Carlos said, frowning.

"Just to be polite," Maddie said gently but firmly. "I'll be right back."

Carlos watched her go, with an expression similar to Gillian's.

"How does she know him?" The albino asked curiously, watching her cute friend approach the taciturn senior. She scowled when he smiled a little and playfully tugged on one of her fluffy cat ears. Unconsciously, she clenched her fists.

"They dated last year for a few months," Carlos supplied. "He's kind of a loser, in my opinion."

"He's…alright," Antonio said loyally, obviously feeling the need to defend his team mate.

"Please, you used to be scared shitless of him in middle school," Gillian retorted.

Antonio frowned at her. "What's up, Gil?" He asked, nodding at Carlos and leading his friend away. "You seem kind of edgy."

"Eh, nothing," she said, slightly ashamed of her outburst. "Sorry, Toni."

"Ah, it's okay," he said with his typical sunny smile. "Lars is kinda scary. But look, Maddie's coming back. I gotta go check on someone, I'll be around."

"Uh huh," Gillian agreed, watching him walk into the next room where some other seniors were gathered. Damn. She wished she had an ass like his. Life was really unfair sometimes.

Watching Lars loom over Maddie like that was more than Gillian could bear. Carlos was saying something to her, but she wasn't listening. With a determined expression on her face, the German girl marched over there and grabbed Maddie by the arm just as she was saying good-bye.

"There you are," she said, glaring at Lars. The older boy raised his thin eyebrows and regarded her with mild interest. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"But…I was just talking to you. Right over there," Maddie said, confused, gesturing to their previous spot a few feet away.

"It was nice catching up with you," Lars said coolly, smiling at his ex girlfriend fondly. "Mathias, you ready to go?" He turned to his slightly shorter friend, who was drinking beer as quickly as he could. He leaned on the keg and looked at Lars, frowning.

"I've only had two beers," the Dane complained.

Lars shrugged and headed towards the door. "Suit yourself."

"Hey, wait! Don't leave me, man!" Mathias cried, setting his plastic cup on the table and jogging after his friend.

Maddie glanced over at the fuming pirate queen next to her, who continued to glare after Lars, an unbecoming scowl on her thin lips. "Why are you glaring at Lars like that?" She asked, folding her arms and frowning slightly at her friend.

"He was being a creep," Gillian muttered, leading Maddie outside, where a group of people had set up a game of volleyball, despite the October chill.

Maddie huffed angrily, but sat down next to Gillian on the freshly mowed lawn in the Bonnefoy's expansive backyard so they could watch the game.

"We were just catching up. He's not a bad guy, you know. I don't know why everyone thinks I can't take care of myself," she added, pouting slightly. "You're just as bad as Francis."

Gillian choked a little, recalling her earlier conversation with Francis concerning Maddie. "Aw, don't be mad at me, Biride," she said in her normal teasing voice. "I'm just looking out for you."

Maddie's mouth remained in a stubborn frown for a moment longer, but she ended up smiling. "Yeah, I know," she said quietly. "You're a good friend, Gil."

Her words sent a rush of warmth through her body, and she felt her cheeks flush for the millionth time that night. "Of course," she said gruffly.

Maddie didn't reply. She was watching the volleyball game. She watched, cringing, as Amelia served the volleyball with unnecessary force right into the face of the tallest player on the opposing team, a junior named Ivan. "And she wonders why he doesn't like her," she mumbled. He smiled brightly at her, and it sent it back twice as hard, causing her team mates to scatter like startled birds as it plummeted into the ground. Interestingly enough, they had both dressed as mad scientists, although "Dr." Braginski looked quite a bit scarier. "Sorry Gil, did you say something?" She looked up at her friend, who laughed loudly at the Russian boy's expression.

"Don't worry about it," Gillian said affectionately. "I'm gonna grab a beer. Be right back."

"Kay," Maddie said absently, wincing as she watched Arthur attempt to hit the ball over the net.

When she returned, she handed her a red cup of beer and plopped down next to her, determined to enjoy her night.

Maddie took a sip and frowned slightly. "You got me beer?"

"The most awesome of beverages, _ja_," Gillian answered, taking a swig. "Ha! Braginski, your aim sucks!" She yelled at her old nemesis when he hit the ball out of bounds. He frowned and looked around for the source of the remark, and smiled his creepy smile at her. "Ah, Beilschmidt, you are so short I almost did not see you there!" He called merrily.

"Hey, fuck you," Gillian returned cheerfully, flipping him the bird.

"Gil," Maddie scolded.

"Loosen up, Mads," Gillian said lazily, knocking back the rest of her beer.

Maddie sighed and sipped on her beer, and they watched the rest of the game in relative quiet.

Amelia came over afterwards, dragging Arthur with her. "Hey, you guys wanna go in the maze Francis set up?" She asked excitedly, her blue eyes shining behind her doctor's glasses. "It looks totally cool!"

"It can't be that good, if that frog set it up," Arthur grumbled. He was dressed as one of the doctors from Doctor Who in a long trench coat, and he looked rather disdainful as he glanced around at the other people at the party. He never was much for parties.

"Looks like fun," Maddie agreed, brushing herself off and standing up. "Let's check it out."

A few yards away from the main party, the Bonnefoy's three-car garage loomed, looking creepy with smog leaking out from under the side door.

Gillian grinned. Francis couldn't have made it _too_ scary, she reasoned, seeing as he was a complete pansy. Amelia led the way, opening the door to the garage slowly, in case anything should pop out.

The fog went as high as their heads, swirling around them like cool puffs of breath on a freezing winter's day. A strobe light hung from the flat ceiling of the garage, making everything around them look as if it moved in slow motion. It was surprisingly sinister, combined with the ominous soundtrack that played from somewhere in the back of the building.

"Don't worry, I'll totally protect you guys," Amelia declared loudly over the strains of the organ.

"Right," Maddie said sarcastically, and though she walked behind her, Gillian was pretty sure the Canadian girl was rolling her eyes.

They rounded the first corner of the narrow barriers Francis had set up and found themselves facing a very creepy mannequin tied to a chair, with fake blood streaming down from its eyes. Its clothing was tattered, and it sported what appeared to be bite marks all over its body.

"Charming," Arthur noted, sidestepping it and walking ahead.

"Whoa, that actually looks pretty realistic," Amelia mused, bending down to inspect its face. She lifted a hank of bloody hair to look at it more closely.

"Amelia—" Maddie began, reaching forward to stop her as she remarked, "Dude, that's freaky. It looks kind of like—"

Suddenly, the mannequin lifted its head and gave a horrific scream. Amelia shrieked and ran ahead, accidentally knocking Arthur into a corner with fake spiderwebs.

Gillian laughed. "You should've seen that one coming," she said, chuckling at her friend's expression. "Come on!"

"Okay, next," Amelia said shakily, tugging on Arthur's sleeve as they walked past the chair.

The next portion was lined with funhouse mirrors, and creepy laughter bounced off the thin walls of the garage. Grotesque masks faced the walls without mirrors, so they appeared to be surrounded.

"Even these mirrors can't make me look bad," Gillian commented as she followed Maddie down the short passageway. She struck a pose, tilting her pirate hat rakishly to the side and sticking out her hip. The giant bloated Gillian made a garish face right back at her, and she laughed appreciatively. "Whatcha think, Maddie? Guys?" She paused in the middle of her posturing and looked around. Maddie, Amelia, and Arthur had disappeared into the fog. She groaned. "Not cool!" She yelled petulantly.

The mirrors were suddenly a lot less amusing now, with a dozen red eyes following her every movement. Even though she liked her unusual eye color most of the time, she had to admit that with the combined effects of funhouse mirrors, strobe lights, and fog, it was downright petrifying. "Hey! Maddie? Amelia? …Arthur?" She jogged to the end of the passageway and turned the corner.

An eerie red light was the only illumination in the corridor, and it looked like someone's bloody footprints led to the doorway outside. She sighed in relief and headed towards it. Her oddly colored eyes darted around anxiously. It was a straight passageway, with what looked like gravestones and oddly familiar gas station signs on the walls and ceilings. Weird. Gravestones were creepy, but gas station signs? But it was completely empty—she would've been able to see anyone. Still, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling of being watched, so she picked up her pace. She was only a few feet away from the door when suddenly, she heard a violent buzzing. She turned around and screamed, as someone swung down from the ceiling and waved a chainsaw in her face.

"_What the fuck?!_" She shrieked as the chainsaw hit her shoulder, and she fell to the floor. She felt a dull vibration in her shoulder, but it was—obviously—plastic. A prop.

The person hanging from what must have been the attic let down a rope ladder, and nimbly climbed down, peeling off the Leatherface mask as they approached. "Not bad, huh?" She asked, revealing an almost feline face and matted brown curls. "Francis asked me to dress up as Leatherface. He said you'd appreciate it," Bella said cheerfully, giggling. The younger van Buren sibling looked quite pleased with herself, waving her chainsaw about.

"That fucker," Gillian growled, storming out of the garage, where her friends waited.

"Sorry, we must have lost you in the fog," Maddie apologized anxiously when the older girl stomped over to them, looking jittery. "I thought I heard a scream. Are you okay?"

"It was probably just Amelia," Arthur chuckled, looking rather pleased, as Amelia continued to hold onto his sleeve like a leech.

"That was you," Amelia insisted stubbornly. "Heroes do not scream."

"I'm fine," Gillian said gruffly, shivering in the cold. "Let's go inside. I'm freezing my ass off out here." It was now nearly midnight; only a few people were left outside, wandering about, messing with Francis' decorations.

Most of the present noise seemed to come from the living room, where the furniture had been cleared so people could dance. Gillian smirked when they walked inside and she spotted Ludwig sitting on a couch, talking with a very animated Feliciana. Her brother Lovino sat next to them, glowering as a group of teenagers began to dance to Thriller too close to him.

Impulsively, Gillian dragged Maddie's hand and dragged her to the center of the room and began to dance.

Maddie burst into laughter at her friend's antics. "You don't dance much, do you?" She asked, chuckling. The dim lighting made her violet eyes look even brighter than usual.

"You gotta dance, too," Gillian said bossily, grabbing her and twirling her around.

"That's not part of the dance," Maddie objected, laughing, as she nearly twirled into someone.

"Then dance!" Gillian said, lifting up her hands in what was a killer impersonation of the dancing undead, in her opinion. Watching Maddie look around awkwardly, trying to imitate the other teens, Gillian was hit with a sudden realization.

_Francis was right_, she thought, grinning when Maddie accidentally stumbled into the quiet junior from Cameroon and proceeded to apologize profusely. _I definitely have a crush on her. Fuck. Why do I always have to like the straight girls?!_ A certain green-eyed brunette from the swim team came to mind, and she sighed deeply. _Whatever. I won't ruin our friendship_, she thought, determined.

The rest of the night passed without event—they ended up staying until three to watch Halloweentown in Francis' game room. Only about ten people were left by then. Gillian was squished between Maddie and Antonio, and she was about to nod off, but a sudden pressure on her shoulder made her eyes flash open. Carefully, she lifted her head, and saw that Maddie had fallen asleep on her shoulder, her mouth slightly open as she breathed easily. She had to resist the urge to adjust her glasses, which nearly slid off her nose.

_Dammit, why do you have to be so adorable? _Gillian thought, smiling slightly. Everyone else was getting pretty tired too, except Arthur and Francis, who felt the need to argue about some stupid plot point in the movie. She sighed. Those two bickered like an old married couple. It really got on her nerves sometimes.

The credits began to roll, and everyone sleepily got to their feet.

Reluctantly, Gillian nudged Maddie awake. "What time is it?" She asked drowsily, blinking. She looked rather owl-like behind her glasses.

"Time to go," Francis announced, standing up and turning off the TV. He frowned slightly at Gillian, as if it was _her_ fault that Maddie had fallen asleep on her shoulder. She made a face right back at him.

Suddenly, Gillian remembered Ludwig. Where was he? She hadn't seen him in hours! _Vati's going to kill me for not keeping an eye on him_, she thought glumly. She got out her phone to text him and saw that he had messaged her nearly three hours ago. _Going to Ihop with Sakura and Feli. Don't wait up. _

_Damn Sakura, that cockblock_, Gillian thought, but felt relieved. Ludwig was nearly seventeen. He could look after himself, she reasoned.

"Alright, Frannie, we're going," Gillian said, standing up and yawning. She adjusted the sword at her hip and looked down at Maddie, who looked ready to fall asleep again. Antonio was sprawled next to her, out cold and drooling a little. "Mads? You need a ride?"

"Um, Arthur's brother dropped us off," she said, looking across the room to her neighbor for confirmation.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Arthur asked, distracted momentarily from his argument with Francis.

"Is Alistair still coming to get us?" Amelia asked.

"Ah," Arthur said, frowning. "About that. Alistair hasn't actually answered any of my calls…" He scowled.

"It's cool, I can give you a ride home," Gillian told her. "And you two. Even you, crankypants," she said affectionately to Arthur. "Unless you want to spend the night here."

Arthur blanched. "No, thank you," he said stiffly, getting to his feet and dusting himself off.

"Well, then. Thanks for the party, Francis," Gillian said, stepping across a sleeping Bella to hug her friend. But it was only a side hug, because his toga had somehow moved down only to cover his lower torso. She shuddered a little. She would rather _not_ see his armpit hair, although Lord only knew she had seen more of both Francis and Antonio than any sane person should see in their years together.

"Bye, Tonio," she said to the sleeping boy on the couch, ruffling his hair affectionately. She saluted the remaining teens—Bella, Lovino, and another student she didn't know. "See you lot around. Alright, kids, car's leaving," she told her friends, skipping down the stairs two at a time. _Man, pancakes sounded really good right now_, she mused, as she paused by the front door to take a fistful of candy from the bowl there. _Maybe Ludwig had the right idea_.

Gillian held her car keys high above her head, unlocking her sleek black car with an obnoxious beeping noise.

"That's your car?" Amelia whistled appreciatively. "It's nice, Gil."

"Thanks, bra," she said, sliding into the driver's seat. "German cars _are_ the best."

"I'll have to disagree with you there," Arthur remarked, climbing into the back with Amelia. "Nothing is more elegant than a Rolls Royce."

"That's such an old man car, eyebrows," Gillian teased, making a face at him in the rearview mirror as she backed out of the Bonnefoy's driveway with a screech. "But then, you are kind of an old man. Where do you live, anyway?"

Arthur sighed heavily, evidently too tired to argue much with her. "On Bradfort Street, past the grocery store."

"Oh, you live by Maddie," Gillian chirped happily.

"I don't know if I'm comfortable with you knowing where I live," he grumbled, staring out the window as they flew down the highway.

"Please," Gillian snorted. "Who do you think TP'd your house the year before I left for Denmark?"

"That was you?" Arthur exclaimed.

Maddie chuckled at the memory. That had been quite the cleanup. It took them nearly a week to get all the toilet paper out of the numerous trees in the Kirkland's front yard.

"It was Toni's idea," Gillian said innocently. "Francis and I were just helping him out."

Amelia laughed too. "That was because we got Toni's house first," she said, and Gillian could hear the grin in her voice, even though she was watching the road. "Remember?"

"Of course," Arthur said, gracing her with one of his rare smiles when Gillian pulled up to his house. "Are we still going to the movie tomorrow?"

"Yep!" Amelia said cheerfully. "See you tomorrow, Artie!"

He smiled at her and nodded at Gillian. "Thanks," he told her, but scowled when she rolled down the window and sang out in an imitation of Amelia's voice, "See ya, _Artie!"_

He glared at her and turned away, putting up the collar of his trenchcoat against the cold as he walked up to the completely dark house.

"Ah, he's so easy to tease," Gillian said fondly, driving down the street to the cul-de-sac where the Jones-Williams house was. "I kinda missed that kid when I was gone. Alright, ladies, this is your stop."

"Thanks Gil. See ya at practice Monday!" Amelia said, slamming the car door hard enough to make the German girl wince.

"Sure thing!" She called after the blonde. She turned to Maddie and remarked, "You've been awful quiet tonight."

"Sorry," the Canadian apologized immediately, causing Gillian to roll her eyes. "I haven't been sleeping much lately. Anyway, I'm glad I came to your party, Gil. I actually had fun."

"I'm glad you did too. Happy Halloween, Maddie," Gillian said, hugging her quickly.

Maddie gave her one of her painfully cute smiles, and for a second, Gillian was tempted to lean across the armrest and cross the distance between their mouths. But she didn't. "Bye," she said, after Maddie had closed the door and followed her sister up to the house. "Sweet dreams, Birdie."

* * *

_Wow, could I have made that ending paragraph any cheesier? Sorry ~_

_Bella and Lars van Buren are Belgium and Netherlands! Those are both fairly common fanon names, but I couldn't find their surname, so I picked van Buren because it's Dutch and van Buren was a president, and I am an American history major. Yeeeeah..._

_Please R&R if you like! And thanks for reading!_


	5. Iris

**A/N: Thank you so much for the kind reviews! Forever In The Fire, your review made me really smile! I'm glad you're giving nyotalia a chance! I love nyotalia, but I don't normally (ever, actually) write shojo ai (fem pairings). I usually write het! But I just really love both Maddie and Gillian as separate characters, and I love this ship so much! I don't know, man. But thanks for reading!**

* * *

Gillian Beilschmidt was rather difficult to figure out, Maddie mused as she chewed on the tip of her pencil, staring at the worksheet before her in French class. When she was present, _everyone_ knew it, she made sure of it. Her loud voice could be heard all the way down the hallway, her high-pitched laugh—it was more of a cackle, really—was distinct, if weird, and her rather strange wardrobe and albinism guaranteed that even if she wasn't a loudmouth—and she was—people would notice her. On the surface, she was just that—a loudmouth who loved to be the center of attention, who got her greatest joys from teasing her friends, who lived to talk back to authority figures and start fights over the smallest things. And yet, there were times when Maddie wondered if she was just that transparent. She had caught glimpses of a different Gillian before, a side that she wasn't sure she was necessarily supposed to see. A furious Gillian, who nearly got into a fight in the middle of the hallway because she heard someone call Antonio a fag. A thoughtful Gillian, who would randomly bring her treats in class that her father brought with him from business trips to Switzerland. An unexpectedly serious Gillian, who never wanted to talk about her relationship with aforementioned father or why her mother was never around.

For the past few months, Maddie had made it her goal to try and figure her out. It should have been simple, but it wasn't. Usually, Maddie was quite good at reading people. She could discern someone's character after only fifteen minutes of talking to them. She noticed the things about people that others seemed to overlook—the set of their shoulders when they walked, the little nervous habits, the way they held themselves when they spoke. It was easy for her to study people, because people tended to ignore her, for the most part. They never paid attention to the quiet girl with the giant glasses and thoughtful violet eyes.

Except Gillian.

Gillian had noticed.

Maddie was rather unsure as to why the older girl had taken such a liking to her. She was one of the best-known seniors, even if not everyone liked her. Not that she would have cared about their opinions one way or another. Gillian made it very clear that the only people she cared about were her closest friends and family, and everyone else could go fuck themselves. In fact, her utter disdain for the opinions of others came off almost as hostile. She was so violently opposed to letting anyone get close to her that she was almost aggressive. Maddie wondered if she had always been that way. For someone who was always seen with an arm around another or exchanging jokes, she seemed oddly…alone.

Maddie absently drummed on her desk as she stared pensively at her French worksheet. Gillian was gone today, but they weren't doing any partner activities, thankfully, so Maddie could just sit at her desk and work quietly. It was weird. This was exactly what she had been doing for the past few years in most of her classes, but she had become so accustomed to her noisy presence during French that she wasn't quite sure what to do.

The entire class seemed quite a bit quieter in general. Madame Dubois read at her desk peacefully, occasionally looking up to make sure that her students were working. Next to Maddie, Lovino slept in the cradle of his arms, snoring softly. A few whispers disturbed the silence, but other than that, the room was about as lively as a graveyard. The chilly November sunlight shone dimly through the window, doing nothing at all to warm the drafty classroom. Maddie sighed, and went back to her verb conjugations.

After several paranoid glances at her teacher, she hastily texted Gillian, _Where are you?_

It wasn't until many hours later that she got a reply. After a rather trying dinner with her parents bickering, Amelia's complaining about the food, and Amelia's dog Liberty barking the entire time, she finally retreated to her room and closed the door behind her, sinking face first into her comforter and sighing very deeply. She thought about rereading _Wuthering Heights_, but frankly, she was feeling quite lazy. She just wanted to lay on her bed and never move again. She did roll over and check her phone, though, when she saw that Gillian finally responded.

**Gillian B., 7:45 p.m.: Hey Birdie! Did ya miss me? ;D I decided to ditch today. Just wasn't feeling it. Eli and I went and found an awesome comic book shop downtown! **

Maddie frowned. Eli? Who was Eli? She couldn't think of any guys named Eli. She tried to think of the people Gillian hung out with besides Francis and Antonio, but only the soccer girls came to mind. Before she could ask, her phone buzzed again. Curious, she clicked on the photo Gillian sent. _This is me and my best friend from when we were little, Eli! Aren't we cute? Haha! _

She recognized the winking albino girl, holding the phone out at arm's length as she made a ridiculous face at the camera. But the person she had her arm around certainly didn't look like an Eli, or a guy at all, for that matter. Long, mahogany hair, long-lashed emerald eyes …wasn't that Elizabeta Herdervary, from the swim team? Her eyes widened in surprise. She had no idea they were friends. Gillian's abrasive personality hadn't exactly endeared her to many of her class mates…she felt rather strange, studying the picture. She tried to remember the last time she had seen Gillian this happy. The German girl looked ready to burst with excitement after a day's worth of causing trouble. Elizabeta looked happy as well, though she lacked her friend's ridiculous expression. She smiled impishly up at the camera instead, her eyes dancing with mischief. She was quite striking, Maddie thought, unable to stop herself from studying the picture. Suddenly, she wondered if this was the friend Gillian referred to when they first met, the girl she had been mad about for ages. She wondered if Gillian still felt that way about her. For some reason, the thought made her feel…what, exactly? Not good. Her stomach churned uneasily. She never really talked about girls with Gillian. Not that she was afraid to—her friend's sexuality didn't bother her. The last time she could recall Gillian mentioning her attraction to women was when they had watched The Avengers at Maddie's house, a few weeks ago.

"Man, I love Scarlett Johannson," Gillian sighed happily, as they watched the Black Widow take out several armed man. "She's such a babe."

"Heh. Do you have a type, then?" Maddie asked teasingly, surprised at her own question. And yet, she was curious.

"Hmm, I guess," Gillian had replied, shrugging. "I like smart girls, and I like tough girls. And of course, it helps if they're cute." She winked at Maddie, who suddenly felt like her face was on fire.

"Ha, yeah," she had said lamely. "I'm, uh, I'm gonna grab a snack. Be right back."

_Why did I react like that_? She wondered, frowning, as she put her phone away. _I'm used to Gillian's flirting. Gillian flirts with everyone. _Come to think of it, she had never met anyone that was more of a flirt, except maybe Francis. She just brushed it off. It was the most logical thing to do.

For once, she was grateful for Amelia's intrusion as the door to her bedroom slammed open, drawing her out of her thoughts. Her stepsister came and flopped down on the bed, looking as tired as Maddie felt.

"Maddieee," she whined softly, placing her head in Maddie's lap. "Today sucked."

Despite herself, Maddie smiled, and began to absently twist strands of Amelia's golden hair around her fingers. "What happened?" She asked patiently, preparing herself for a regaling tale about how much she hadn't slept the night before because of her new video game, or being forced to eat asparagus at dinner by Marianne.

"Maddie, do you think I'm stupid?" She asked, looking up at her sister with a pleading look in her blue eyes.

Maddie blinked, astonished. Well, she hadn't been expecting _that_. "Wha—no, Amelia, of course not. What provoked this?"

Amelia sighed, and clapped her hands over her eyes childishly, so she wouldn't have to face her sister's scrutinizing eyes. "I don't know. Arthur was helping me with my English essay and he just looked so frustrated the entire time—"

Maddie's eyes narrowed. She loved Arthur; he was like an older brother to her. But sometimes, he could be kind of a jerk. "He didn't call you stupid, did he?" She asked instead.

"Well, no," Amelia answered sheepishly. "But he was trying to explain the bigger meaning behind _The Once and Future King _and I mean, it's a good story, it just gets so repetitive and I said that and he got really annoyed and said I would never understand and it just made me feel really bad!" She exhaled heavily.

"Well, you know how Arthur is about English," she said, although she was beginning to sympathize with their English neighbor a bit more now. Amelia had once discarded her copy of _Hamlet _because "it took too long, and she didn't see the point". Arthur's expression had been utterly priceless. "But I'm sure he doesn't think you're stupid, Amelia. Didn't you help him with his math homework last semester? And you're a year younger than him!"

"It's not just that," she mumbled, rolling out of her sister's lap and sitting up. She played with the hem of her Washington High School sweatshirt anxiously. "I messed up on my physics presentation in class today, too. I made a really stupid mistake. I just kept talking and I got carried away, and then Yao stood up in the middle of it and said, _That's not right at all_, and it was terrible! Everyone started laughing." Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and Maddie felt a surge of anger rush over her.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Ames," she told her sister sternly. "And you are smart, you understand? I don't know anyone who knows more about astronomy than you! Just because you're not good at English—" –an understatement if ever there was one—"—or make a mistake in physics once doesn't mean you're dumb. Okay?"

"I'm never going to live it down," she said glumly. "I know it. I made fun of Ivan last week because he was going on about how superior Russian physicians are, and then I completely mixed up Newton's second and third laws today."

"Amelia," Maddie said again, firmly. "Would I lie to you?"

Amelia looked at her sister and sighed, flipping up her hood and lying down on the bed again. "I guess not," she said in a muffled voice.

"Definitely not," she corrected, relieved to see a small smile on her sister's face. "Want me to go yell at Arthur for you?" Maddie wasn't really the yelling type, both of them knew, but she had known him for long enough that she wasn't exactly intimidated by him.

"Nah, I'll do it myself," Amelia said, chuckling. "After we're done watching Supernatural." She army crawled across the bed to Maddie's night stand and grabbed her laptop, flipping it open and typing in the password.

"Hey, how do you know my password?" Maddie asked crossly. "And I don't want to watch Supernatural."

"Please, you haven't changed it since you were thirteen," Amelia said, as if it were obvious. "And yes, you do. I can see it in your eyes." She pulled up the Netflix tab and propped the laptop across her knees, snuggling up next to Maddie.

Maddie sighed. So much for her quiet night to herself. But she knew the more she resisted, the more decisive Amelia would become.

After an episode or two, Amelia sat up suddenly, and regarded her sister strangely. "Hey, Mads?"

"What's up?" Maddie asked sleepily. Watching TV for too long always made her drowsy.

"You seemed kind of down earlier," Amelia said, looking a little guilty. "And I kinda just barged in here. Are you, uh, okay?"

"Down?" Maddie repeated. "Um, no? I'm…I'm fine." The weird thing was, she had been kind of down. But she attributed that to the grueling week of school. Nothing of importance, really.

"Are you sure?" Amelia pressed, scrutinizing her face.

Maddie rolled her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Okay," Amelia said happily. "Just making sure. I gotta look out for my little sis."

"I'm barely three months younger than you," Maddie grumbled.

"Exactly," Amelia replied, pulling up Netflix again. "My baby sister. We're like Dean and Sam! We have to watch each other's backs." She grinned at Maddie's groan. She knew Maddie was indifferent at the most to her favorite show, but it didn't stop her from forcing her to watch it with her. If anything, it encouraged her.

"Right. Practically the same," she agreed sarcastically.

"Yup," Amelia smirked. "Glad you see it my way."

* * *

The weekend passed far too quickly, as usual, and then it was back to studying for her chemistry test, doing copious amounts of math homework, and reading until her eyes glazed over. She hadn't slept a wink Sunday night, because a thunderstorm at three a.m. woke up their dog, and she cried until about five, and by then, Maddie couldn't fall asleep again.

So she stumbled through the day, falling asleep in chemistry twice despite Sakura's gentle nudging to wake her. _Why did French have to be at the end of the day?_ She wondered tiredly as she trudged up the stairs to the second floor of the high school. She smiled at Madame Dubois and slid into her seat. Today, they were reading an excerpt from _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_. It had been the only thing getting her through the day. Even though the rest of the class groaned at the difficulty of the text—_it's only the past tense,_ she thought—Maddie was prepared to tune them out and read in peace, as her partner was, once again, missing.

Until Gillian showed up, ten minutes late.

She slunk into class without her usual swagger and sat down with a small smile for Maddie, but nothing else. She actually got out her textbook and paper, as if she had every intention of working. Her pale hair was pulled up in a greasy ponytail, and she looked as if she hadn't showered in a day or two. She reeked of cigarette smoke. There were shadows under her lovely eyes.

Maddie stared at her, concerned, but unsure how to approach her. Finally, she began with a falsely cheerful, "How was your weekend, Gil?"

Gillian snorted. "It was great," she said sarcastically. "I spent it at Antonio's, so it actually wasn't that bad."

"Why didn't you stay at ho—"

"Nope," Gillian said flippantly, grinning. "We're not going there. I have an assignment to do." She smiled widely at Madame Dubois, who regarded her suspiciously. She pulled out the loose-leaf pages of their reading assignment and whipped out five different colors of highlighter and went to town, coloring almost every single word.

Maddie bit her lip, wanting to talk to her, but not wanting to cause a scene. Sighing, she forced herself to read, but her thoughts kept straying to the girl next to her. Class went by at an agonizingly slow pace. She could swear that every tick of the clock went by slower and slower, a loud, metallic thud amplified in her ears as she stared at the black and white face behind Madame Dubois' head. Finally, the last bell rang, and Maddie hastily put all of her texts away. She waited for Gillian by the door.

Gillian sighed when she saw that she waited for her. "Don't make that face," Gillian said in a teasing tone, but her smile didn't reach her eyes. "You look like a lost puppy."

"Gillian," Maddie said tentatively, reaching out and grabbing the sleeve of her black Bayern Muenchen soccer sweatshirt. "Um…"

"What's up, Birdie? I gotta go," she said, not unkindly.

"Are you okay?" She blurted out. "You just seem…really…unhappy…"

Gillian shrugged her slender shoulders. She looked dwarfed in the giant sweatshirt. Sometimes Maddie forgot how small she really was because of how boisterous she was. "I had another fight with my dad. Nothing big."

Maddie's eyes widened in concern. "A fight?" Suddenly, she felt nauseous. Without explaining what she was doing, she pushed up the sleeves of Gillian's sweatshirt, studying the pale arms anxiously. No bruises. She sighed, feeling partially relieved.

"What are you doing?" Gillian asked curiously, frowning a little. "He doesn't beat me or something, if that's what you're worried about."

"Oh," Maddie said faintly. "Good." She didn't remember much about her biological dad, only that he was kind of a deadbeat and drank a lot. He never actually hit her mother, but he came awfully close a few times. Even now, with her stepdad Alfred, Maddie flinched whenever he raised his voice, although she knew he would never raise his hand to her mother.

Gillian gave her a strange look, withdrawing her hands. "Yeah…I gotta drop Lud off at home and then come back for soccer practice. I'll see you tomorrow," she added, smiling, as she bounced down the stairs.

Maddie watched her go, standing in the busy hallway outside of their French class, feeling more worried than ever. She knew from the way Gillian talked about her dad that they didn't get along very well. She also knew that Gillian was supposed to be looking at colleges and taking prep tests like the other seniors, but she was so involved in soccer and, well, not caring, that she wasn't exactly on top of things. She had talked to Francis about it once, but he had only shaken his head and smiled, a little sadly.

"You can't tell that one what to do," he mused. "Trust me, I've tried. We've all tried. She'll grow up when she's ready."

Maddie walked down the linoleum steps, hugging the walls as students brushed by her, talking loudly and complaining about their Mondays. It made her sad that Gillian didn't want to talk to her. It was stupid, she knew. They had only been friends for a few months. She didn't know her like Francis and Antonio did. But still.

She was even more quiet on the ride home from school than usual.

Without Amelia in the car—she was at soccer practice as well—the only real source of noise was Arthur's fickle heater. They drove in companionable silence down the winter roads, past the familiar grocery stores and gas stations. Arthur seemed to pick up on her mood, but didn't say anything, for which she was grateful. They listened to the Beatles for the rest of the ride, humming along to ignore the freezing interior of the old Ford Anglia.

"Ah, it's snowing," Arthur remarked happily, as he pulled up in front of the Jones-Williams house. White powder gently began to float down from the silver coin colored sky, dusting the tops of the suburban homes like sugar.

"Maybe we'll get a snow day tomorrow," Maddie said hopefully, grabbing her backpack and slipping out of the car. "That would be great. I wouldn't have to go to geometry."

Arthur chuckled. "Right. Maybe if our principal magically grows a heart overnight. See you tomorrow, Maddie!"

She waved, watching him reverse and head back down the street towards his own house, and then she turned and walked up the steps to her own home.

"Hey, Mads!" Alfred said happily, almost as soon as she walked in the door. She turned and saw her stepfather sitting in his office to the left of the entrance hallway, smiling at her from over his thick stack of papers. "Your mom made some hot chocolate for you girls!"

"Oh," Maddie said, poking her head in his office. "That's nice. But Amelia has practice today, remember?"

"Right," Alfred agreed, although he had clearly forgotten. "I should probably use that desk calendar Marianne got me. Well, anyway, go grab it before it gets cold." He laughed when she spontaneously ran over and hugged him. "You're in a good mood today," he remarked, hugging her back. Maddie wasn't usually very affectionate, but thinking about Gillian just made her grateful for the father figure in her own life.

"I guess so," she said with a small smile. "Thanks, Dad." She went into the kitchen, grabbed her hot chocolate, and went upstairs to sit on her windowsill and watch the snow come down, feeling a number of emotions that she didn't quite understand.

* * *

_Trying to write some more depth into this fic...we'll see how that goes._

_Alfred and Marianne, Amelia's dad and Maddie's mom, are just OCs. I just gave them Hetalia names (well, Marianne is a common name for fem!France, which is kind of how I picture Maddie's mom) because I like using them. They're not actually America and fem!France, just generic OCs. Because I get very tired of the dead and/or missing parent trope in anime and fan fiction...but they won't appear very often. _

_Ahhh, and I had to throw some PruHun in there ;_; I think Prussia, male or female, would always love Elizabeta. I can't blame her. I love Elizabeta a lot, too. I can't believe I haven't talked about her more, yet. She'll pop up again pretty soon. I have plans for her._

_Yeah, Gil and her dad don't get along very well...:c_

_Bayern Muenchen is a German soccer/football team! They've been doing really well lately. And since Gillian loves soccer, of course she would rep her homeland whenever possible._


	6. You Make My Dreams

**A/N: You know that Hall and Oates song, You Make My Dreams? Well it's super cute (it's on my PruCan playlist) and it goes like this:**

**What I want you've got  
But it might be hard to handle  
Like the flame that burns the candle  
But the candle feeds the flame, yeah yeah  
What I got full stock  
Of thoughts and dreams that scatter  
And you pull them all together  
And how I can't explain, oh yeah**

Well well you (ooh ooh ooh ooh)  
You make my dreams come true.

* * *

Gillian was back to her usual, wincingly loud self the next class, leaving Maddie to wonder exactly what had caused the fight between her and her dad. She guessed that it had something to do with the D she made on their last oral exam, because Gillian actually seemed to care about her grade this time. In fact, after class, she turned to Maddie and said, bossily, "You gotta help me, Mads."

"With what?" Maddie inquired mildly, neatly placing her papers inside her folder. Gillian stood up and put her hands on her hips, grinning down at her friend.

"You are gonna help me ace the winter final," she declared, tapping Maddie on the nose. "And that will get my dad off my case, a little! Well, that, and if I pass calculus this semester…but I can worry about that later! I know! We can have a study date! Let's go to that cute little coffee shop off the highway, past Montgomery Street!"

"Wait, Gil, I have stuff to do—" Maddie interrupted, but Gillian wasn't listening.

"Awesome, see you in a bit," she sang out, saluting her as she danced out the door.

Maddie sighed heavily as she stood up, slinging her cherry red backpack over one slender shoulder and heading towards the door.

"Maddie?" Madame Debois asked, right before she left.

"Yes?" Maddie turned around, regarding her teacher curiously.

Her teacher smiled at her from her comfortable seat behind the giant desk that rather dwarfed her. "I'm very grateful to you for helping out Gillian," she said, her kind eyes crinkling at the corners. "I know she's a smart girl. She's just very…unmotivated. I think you can be a good influence on her."

Maddie's cheeks warmed at her teacher's praise. "Thank you," she said quietly, feeling a bit guilty now for complaining about Gillian dragging her into study sessions. "I'll try."

She decided to head over to the library on the first floor to study until Gillian got out of practice. She spread out her wide assortment of papers—chemistry, geometry, and history were her main concerns. She sighed as she sank into a library chair and massaged her temples tiredly. She began with geometry, and spent a good half hour plotting coordinate points before she gave up and moved on to her American history assignment. She smirked as she read the prompt: discuss the causes and effects of the War of 1812. She was halfway through her description of the various Canadian heroes of the war when her phone began to buzz, and a picture of a certain albino with a manic grin popped up on her smart phone. She didn't realize how late it had gotten.

"Hello?" She asked, smiling unconsciously when she heard Gillian's voice.

"Hey, birdie! You ready to go? I just got done with practice," she panted, her breath coming across the speakers as loud static. "Where ya at?" Her German accent was stronger when she was excited, Maddie noted with amusement.

"I'm in the library. I can meet y—"

"Cool! See you in five!" The phone disconnected before she had a chance to reply, and she half-laughed, half-sighed. Sometimes it bothered her that Gillian talked over her, but mostly, she was just glad that she was feeling better.

However, on the way to the coffee shop, Maddie found herself wishing that serious Gillian was back just for a bit, because the German girl's driving was terrifying. A driver honked loudly at them as Gillian carelessly cut him off.

"Gil, please, slow down," Maddie said frantically, her fingers digging into the upholstery of her seat as Gillian pulled into the parking lot.

Gillian glanced over at her and smirked. "I wouldn't let anything happen to ya," she said, winking, as she stepped out of the car and slammed the door.

Maddie snorted doubtfully and followed her friend into the coffee shop.

She was surprised that Gillian had managed to find her own favorite coffee shop, Cappa Cappa Cino. It wasn't one of the more popular coffee shops; it was on the edge of town, away from all of the tourists visiting Washington D.C., warm and welcoming and locally run. It used to be a sorority house for one of the smaller local colleges, and still had the Greek letters on the front of the house, but now it functioned as a coffee and tea shop. She followed Gillian up the creaky steps into the house, where a few people loitered on the couches in the front room. She smiled despite herself, inhaling the fresh aroma of tea leaves.

"How did you find this, Gil?" She asked, setting her things down on a table by one of the windows. "It doesn't seem like your kind of place."

"It is a bit quiet for me," Gillian agreed, dumping an armful of textbooks on the worn table. "But my mom used to take me here when I was little, before we moved. So I like coming back here. It reminds me of her." She looked around and smiled. "It's cute, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Maddie agreed, following her over to the small bar set up against the far wall of what used to be the living room. She looked up at the chalkboard menu and got out her wallet. "Um, I think I'll just get a cinnamon spice latte, please…" She said to the slender, dark-haired barista, who sported a rather bored expression and unusually thick eyebrows.

Gillian snatched her wallet and held it behind her back, and smiled up at the barista. "I want a java chip frappacuino thing! With extra espresso!" She handed the barista her card, ignoring Maddie's protests.

"Gil, give me back my wallet—" She began, reaching around her friend to take it back, but Gillian danced away from her, grinning hugely.

"Nope! It's on me today! Consider it a thank you from the awesome me for helping me out in French. Thanks," she said, beaming at the barista, who handed her back her card with a smile. "Okay, _now_ you can have it back." She handed it over with a flourish.

Maddie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose where her glasses sat. "You're ridiculous," she said, unable to contain a laugh as she followed Gillian back to their small table. It was cold next to the window; the November chill seeped in through the thin glass, but the view of the street was too nice to pass up. The quiet Washington D.C. suburb slowed down a bit in the sleepy afternoon stupor; a few cars drove down the narrow streets, some passersby shuffled down the gray avenues; the only flashes of color were swirls of golden and red leaves that flew by.

She sat down across from her friend and snuggled a little more into her oversized navy blue sweater, shivering a bit. Gillian sat down across from her and opened her textbook. She wore her hair in a silvery braid today, and another one of her weird German metal band shirts under a worn, black leather jacket. The dark colors made her look even paler than usual, like a photograph drained of color. Only her bright eyes and the healthy color in her cheeks made her look alive. She grinned when she caught Maddie staring at her. "What, I got something on my face?" Gillian asked, smirking.

"Eh, no," Maddie stammered, feeling her face flush. "Actually, yeah." She reached across the table and brushed Gillian's cheek with her thumb, watching with a strange elation as the other girl's face reddened. It was weirdly cute. "I got it." She pretended to flick something off her thumb and made a big show of unpacking her textbooks so she wouldn't have to meet Gillian's confused gaze. _What the hell did I do that for_? She wondered.

"Oh. Thanks," Gillian said in an odd tone, but then the barista came over to them with their drinks.

"Enjoy," he said, depositing their drinks in front of them with a small smile and walked away, his Converse pattering across the creaky wooden floorboards as he returned to the bar.

"Oh, that's one of Arthur's brothers, Rhys," Maddie said, realizing now why those eyebrows looked so familiar. "I guess he's home from college for the winter."

"Kinda early for that, isn't it?" Gillian mused, taking a huge slurp of her sugary drink. "Why didn't you say hi?"

Maddie laughed a little, cradling the hot cardboard cup between her chilly fingers. "They're all kinda scary. And anyway, none of them can ever get my name right. Even though I've lived down the street from them for eight years," she added with a sigh. "They keep thinking I'm Amelia." She wrinkled her nose distastefully. She loved Amelia, obviously, but it was always frustrating to be mistaken for her. No one ever confused Amelia for Maddie, and it got pretty old after awhile. Amelia didn't even wear glasses. People were just too lazy to learn her name.

"It really bothers you, doesn't it?" Gillian asked sympathetically.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess it does," Maddie agreed, taking a long sip from her latte. "But I guess I'm used to it."

"Well, you shouldn't get used to it," Gillian said assertively, nodding at the wisdom of her own words. "Next time someone gets your name wrong, just punch them in the face. They won't forget again!"

Maddie snorted, choking a little on her coffee. "That's a great idea, Gil," she said sarcastically. "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're not me," Gillian grinned. "Now come on, slacker. You promised to help me study, and you're just distracting me." She opened her textbook to the latest chapter and frowned. "So, you gotta help me here. Why are there four different ways to say 'to teach'? Why can't they just say _enseigner_ and call it good?" She sighed dramatically, tugging on her braid as she glared down at the offensive text before her.

Maddie chuckled. "It's not that hard. Some of the verbs are just more specific than others, like _instruire_. We have that in English, too. But we can look at that later. You were having trouble with the future tense, right?"

"Yeah," Gillian said absently, sketching a little bird in the corner of her book.

"Okay," Maddie said, settling into her teacher mode. She loved talking about French, whether it was grammar or vocabulary or literature. It just made her happy. It was the one subject in which she really shined. "Let's go over some of the basic conjugations…"

An hour later, Gillian had mastered the basics of the future tense to her satisfaction, and was currently quite jittery from the combined amount of caffeine and sugar in her drink. "H-hey, you wanna come over this weekend?" Gillian asked. "Ludwig is going with Vati out of state for the weekend to visit one of his friends. So I'll be all alone." She gave her a pleading look.

Maddie laughed. "Okay. Sounds like fun. I've never been to your house before."

"Sweet! We can party. And by party, I mean we can marathon Law and Order SVU," Gillian said happily.

Maddie laughed. "I didn't know you were that into cop shows," she commented, finishing the last sugary bits of her drink.

"Who doesn't like Law and Order?" Gillian scoffed. "Anyway, guess we better head back soon, huh?" She glanced out the window. The sun was already setting, and it was only a little past seven thirty. Maddie forgot how quickly it got dark in the winter.

"Yeah, I guess so," she agreed, standing up and putting her books away. "I think I was supposed to help _Maman_ with dinner tonight." She felt a fleeting pang of guilt, but it quickly went away. It was okay to be late for dinner if she was studying, right? She reasoned as she followed Gillian out of the coffee shop to her car.

"Oh, hey, what are you doing the weekend before winter break?" Gillian asked as they pulled out of the parking lot. She didn't bother looking behind her as she stomped on the pedal to reverse.

"Gillian!" Maddie exclaimed, turning around in her seat nervously to see a driver pass behind them and flip her off. "Look where you're going!"

"I did look. Ahead," Gillian clarified with a shrug as she moved the car forward onto the highway. "People should watch out for me."

Maddie sighed heavily. "I don't have any plans, no. Isn't the winter formal that Friday night?"

"Oh, yeah. That. You going?" Gillian asked nonchalantly, staring straight ahead as they drove out of the residential neighborhood.

"The dance?" Maddie blinked in surprise. "I hadn't planned on it. Why? Are you?"

"Hell no," Gillian said, obviously relieved. "Dances are lame. The music sucks and I hate most of the people in my grade. We should totally watch cheesy Christmas movies and stuff instead!"

Maddie laughed. "Alright, I guess. That sounds like fun." Truthfully, she didn't really care for dances either. She always felt so awkward and out of place…and again, she always felt overlooked. She went to the last winter formal with Carlos as friends, and they ended up standing by the refreshments and trying to figure out how much ice cream they could eat without the teachers yelling at them. It had been pretty fun, actually, but not because of the dance itself.

"Awesome," Gillian said happily, as they arrived in front of the Jones-Williams house. They could see Mr. Jones leaving the house with Amelia's dog, Liberty, and Gillian waved enthusiastically through the window. "Tell your folks I say hi," she said merrily. "See ya tomorrow, Mads!"

"Bye, Gillian," Maddie said, smiling, closing the door behind her.

The albino winked and drove off with an all-too-familiar screech of tires, barreling down towards the end of the cul-de-sac.

"Your friend's driving is kind of scary," Alfred commented as he walked over to his stepdaughter.

"Tell me about it," Maddie agreed, patting Liberty on the flank as she walked up the steps to the house.

"Still, she gets you to leave the house, so I can't complain," Alfred added cheerfully, tugging along their Labrador towards the sidewalk.

"_Dad_. You make me sound like a misanthrope," Maddie complained.

Her dad just laughed as he headed down the street, their dog bounding merrily ahead of them.

Maddie shook her head, smiling a little, and headed into the warmth of her house.

* * *

_"Hey, Maddie. Maddie. Maddieee. Pay attention to me, Maddie."_

_ Maddie looked up from her book and sighed. She loved the Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Gillian was making it quite difficult to concentrate. She never had been able to resist Gillian's self-imposed invitations to her house. "Gil, I've read this same sentence five times." _

_ Gilllian sat cross-legged on her bed, looking quite pleased at having finally secured her friend's attention. She wore the same outfit she had been wearing on the first day of school, her ratty Ramstein shirt and the denim skirt with the violently purple leggings. Kuma sat in her lap, shedding her thick white fur all over Gillian's dark clothing, purring contentedly and occasionally flicking her tail as she stared at Maddie with her wide blue eyes. The older girl's eyes twinkled mischievously. "Am I distracting you?"_

_ "Yes, you are, actually," Maddie said, annoyed, not looking up from her page. "I thought you said you were going to write out your practice essay?"_

_ "I did," Gillian said, waving a scrap of paper about airily. "But then I had a better idea." She grinned deviously._

_ "Really." Maddie deadpanned. She turned the page and adjusted her glasses, ignoring Gillian's intense stare. _

_ "Hey," Gillian said, in a more different tone than she had been using. She leaned across the bed, placing her hands on Maddie's knees. Maddie looked up, startled at her sudden proximity. Their faces were barely inches apart. She could see every translucent freckle on Gillian's face._

_ Maddie felt her face heat up. "Gil…?" She asked hesitantly._

_ Gillian's eyes flickered across her face uncertainly for a moment, and then she leaned forward and pressed her lips softly against Maddie's._

_ Maddie froze. What was she doing? Gil's mouth felt so warm against hers, she could taste her strawberry lip balm and feel the gentle touch of her chapped lips, and the hand on the side of her face felt so hot, she thought she might melt. Before she realized what she was doing, she was returning the kiss, kissing her feverishly, discarding her book entirely so she could cup Gillian's warm face between her own chilly hands. _

_ She felt Gillian smile against her mouth, and it was the best feeling in the world. It wasn't anything like kissing Lars. Where Lars was hard lines and sharp planes and prickly stubble, Gillian was soft and warm, vibrant and alive and vaguely smelling of cigarette smoke. She let her hand fall to the silvery hair that waved around the German girl's neck and tentatively toyed with the strands at the back of her neck. Gillian sighed and pulled away briefly, her dark eyes full of light. "Well, that went better than I expected," she chuckled._

_ Maddie closed her eyes briefly in embarrassment, feeling her entire body flush at Gillian's casual teasing. "Why did you kiss me?" She asked instead, suddenly wanting very much to know the answer._

_ Gillian tilted her head to the side and smirked, a silvery lock falling rakishly into her eyes. "Cause you're cute, and because I wanted to," she replied jauntily._

_ "Kiss me again," Maddie blurted out, and Gillian's smile grew even wider._

_ "Okay," she agreed. She shifted forward on the bed so that their crossed legs brushed at the knees, and leaned forward to press her mouth against Maddie's for the second time—_

The angry alarm blared loudly, and Maddie sat up suddenly in bed, startled. She felt hot, too hot. She was buried underneath layers and layers of heavy quilts, and threw them aside hastily. Why was her room so hot? She always slept with extra blankets during the winter, but right now, it was unbearable. She groaned and shut the aggravating alarm off and swung her legs over the side of the bed, stumbling towards her closet wearily. She hated Mondays. She groggily went through the motions of her morning routine, forcing herself not to fall asleep. She felt like she hadn't slept in days, even though she had gone to bed at eleven thirty last night.

It wasn't until she was in the car with Arthur, Amelia, and Peter driving towards the youngest Kirkland's school that she remembered her dream.

"Oh, God," Maddie said aloud, clapping her hands to her face and groaning. Did she just have a dream about kissing one of her best friends? Who happened to be a _girl_? How could this be happening? _No, no, it doesn't mean anything_, she thought hurriedly. _I can't control what I dream!_

"You okay, Mads?" Amelia asked in concern, twisting around in her seat to give her sister a weird look.

"What?" Maddie squeaked. "Yeah, I'm fine. I am definitely fine. I am normal."

She saw Arthur glance at her in the rearview mirror and frown slightly. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Yep," Maddie assured them hastily. "Fine." She pressed her hot face to the chilly window of the Ford Anglia, welcoming the feel of the wintry glass against her skin. She closed her eyes against her friends' scrutiny, wondering how on earth she was supposed to face Gillian in class.

She was jittery the entire day. Twice, she didn't hear what her chemistry teacher asked her because she was too busy staring out the window and trying to figure out what that silly dream had meant. It was only when Sakura had gotten her attention as quietly as possible that she realized that the entire class was staring at her, waiting for her answer. Lunch was even worse, because she saw Francis, and he wanted to talk with her, and that almost definitely meant talking about Gillian. So when he waved at her from across the lunch room, she pretended not to see and dashed off in the direction of the library, where she ate her sack lunch in the safety of the U.S. government section.

She dreaded French, but she knew she couldn't avoid it. She dragged herself up the linoleum steps like a prisoner being lead to her execution, and opened the door to Room 201 with a heavy hand, steeling herself to face her friend_. It wasn't like Gillian would know_, she assured herself. _She was being silly, and overthinking things. It was just a dream. It was just a dream, and sometimes dreams didn't make sense. _

She slipped in a few minutes early, smiled at Madame Dubois, and sat down hurriedly. She got out her workbook and made a big show of concentrating on a few sentence diagrams, gradually calming down a little. The other students began to file in. Feliciana came in, chattering loudly with her twin brother Lovino, and stopped by to talk to Maddie before Madame Dubois shooed her away to start class. Maddie was concentrating so hard on not concentrating on Gillian that her friend's sudden appearance in the desk next to hers made her flinch when she whispered loudly, "Hey, birdie!"

Maddie scooted away a few inches, leaning as far away from her as she could and not meeting her eyes. "Hey, Gil," she mumbled.

"What's the matter with you?" Gillian asked, sounding slightly affronted. "Do I smell?" She lifted the collar of her blue-gray Styx t-shirt and sniffed. "Nope, I smell great. You okay?" She tugged on Maddie's braid.

Maddie jerked away, blushing, suddenly wishing she had worn something nicer than her dingy grey sweater and even more boring black jeans. "Nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to study."

Gillian stuck her tongue out at her. "You're no fun today," she said, getting out her supplies with a world-weary sigh. "You're usually not this immune to my charms."

"W-what?" Maddie asked, turning to her with startled violet eyes.

Gillian raised a fair eyebrow curiously. "I was making a joke?" She offered, frowning slightly. "Jeez, you're edgy today."

Maddie laughed weakly. Of course Gillian didn't feel anything for her. Of course not. Maddie was just being stupid, and vain. "Eh, sorry about that."

"Maddie, please hold your conversations until after class," Madame Dubois said lightly, standing up from behind her desk. "Now, if you'll remember, we left off on Friday talking about the helping, or auxiliary verbs…" She walked over to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk and began to write out several different sentences using helping verbs. "Gillian, would you like to give us another example?"

"I would _love_ to," Gillian said sarcastically, standing up lazily and stretching. The hem of her t-shirt rode up slightly, revealing a strip of pale skin that Maddie found very difficult not to stare at. _What the hell_? She thought, mentally slapping herself.

Gillian walked over towards the chalkboard, her long silvery ponytail swinging as she walked, and she began to violently assault the board with her tiny bit of chalk. "Eh…I don't really remember all of them, but, uh, this is one, right?" She turned to her teacher with a hopeful expression.

"No, that verb takes _etré_," Madame Dubois corrected, smiling a little.

Gillian sighed deeply and held up a pale fist to smudge the word, and then wrote over it again. "Better?"

"Very good. Thank you, Gillian."

Gillian saluted her and sat back down, winking at Maddie. "Good thing I've got such a good tutor, huh?"

Maddie smiled. "Yeah," she agreed, feeling the traces of paranoia start to fade away. She realized now that she was being ridiculous. She forced the confusing feelings aside and made herself concentrate on her classwork. She picked up her pencil and began to copy down the sentences that Madame Dubois wrote. "Thanks, Gil," she whispered.

Gillian grinned her usual blinding smile at her, and Maddie managed to convince herself that the butterflies in her stomach were just the bad tacos that the cafeteria served that day, and nothing more. Gillian was her _friend_. And that was all. She definitely did not have a crush on her friend, and knowing that made her feel a lot better.

The rest of the day passed without much of interest, and she collapsed in bed at the end of the day with Kuma resting next to her, the weird dream almost completely gone from her mind.

* * *

_Maddie ur gay is showing _


	7. Tension

**A/N: So I went back and realized this chapter wasn't very Christmas-themed, despite the time setting...and I added some USUK, because it is my weakness, ok.**

* * *

Maddie set her pencil down with a heavy sigh and stood up to turn in her geometry exam, relieved that she would finally be done with it, if only for the Christmas break. She stood up from her desk and rushed to turn in her test at the front of the room, swinging her cheerful red backpack over one shoulder and practically skipping out of the crammed, depressing classroom, where the rest of her classmates continued to suffer in silence.

Finished! Math was her last exam, and the one she had been dreading the most, despite Amelia's tutoring, but she felt fairly confident that she had secured at least a B. She walked out of the building, reveling in the chilly December wind that swept over her. She loved the cold. It reminded her of her native Quebec. She burrowed into her red and white scarf, fishing her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and dialing Arthur's number. "Hey, can you come get me now? I just finished my last exam—"

She heard a young voice scream in the background, "Give it _back_, Arthur—" before her friend replied, "Ah, sorry, Maddie, hold on, Peter is being a little brat—get out of my room, you git! Sorry, sorry…um, I'll be over there in a bit, I just got back from the grocery store—"

"Eh, it's alright, I'll just call Francis," she said awkwardly, twisting a blondish strand of hair around her index finger anxiously. Even though he always offered to give her a ride home because of how closes their houses were, she couldn't help but feel like she bothered him sometimes.

Arthur made a disgusted noise. "Absolutely not. I'll be right over there." He hung up before she could reply, and she smiled to herself, pocketing her phone.

She hopped from foot to foot to keep warm as she waited by the math wing of the school, not wanting to go back inside that prison after her recent escape, as she thought of it. Still, she was grateful when his old car pulled up to the sidewalk. She eagerly slipped inside, reaching forward to crank up the heater as he drove away from the high school.

"How was math?" He asked conversationally.

"A-alright," she replied. "I'm just glad to be done. What about you?"

"I'm done, too," he said happily. "Just waiting on Amelia to finish her physics exam. I think she still has another hour or two to go."

"Oh, well, at least she's good at physics," Maddie said, burrowing into her pale pink sweater, smiling at the other students running through the parking lot, looking absolutely delighted to finally be on vacation.

"Somehow," he agreed, smiling a little. "Despite her lack of studying. That girl baffles me."

Maddie smirked and looked at him out of the corner of her eye. "I bet."

He shot her a look, frowning a little. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing," Maddie said innocently, looking back out the window. The sky was a perfect pearl gray; if they were lucky, it might snow tonight. It certainly felt cold enough.

He made a scornful noise in the back of his throat, and they drove along in silence for another few minutes before he said hastily, "Do you think she would want to go to the winter formal with me?"

Maddie tried not to whip around and stare at him, wide-eyed. "She might," she said carefully. "You are her best friend."

"Er, yes, but…" He fidgeted with the zipper of his Manchester United jacket, waiting for the light to turn green. "As more than friends? I mean, I was just thinking about it, it might be fun, I don't really care for dances—"

"It can't hurt to ask, right?" Maddie said optimistically, smiling at her friend. Poor boy, he looked nervous at just the thought. So it was as she suspected; he did have a crush on her sister.

"Right," he agreed nervously, a faint flush on his pale cheeks. "Right. Well, maybe I will. We were just going to watch TV at my house anyway, maybe she'd like to get out—"

"I think she would," Maddie said impulsively, even though she was pretty sure Amelia only showed up to school-sponsored events if there was free food. The Jones-Williams siblings had that in common, at least. "You should ask her, Arthur."

The rickety Ford Anglia pulled up to the Jones-Williams house, where they could see Liberty watching them from the living room window, her tail wagging anxiously. Alfred had finally got around to stringing up Christmas lights, and it actually looked pretty good, even if Marianne thought they were tacky. Arthur turned to her and gave her one of his rare smiles, looking grateful. "Alright. Well, have a good day, if I don't see you later, Maddie."

"Bye, Arthur," she said, trying not to grin. _You better not chicken out_, she thought, but didn't say. She waved at him as he turned back towards his house, and bounced up the stairs to her house. She unlocked the door and let herself into the empty house. Both of her parents were still at work, as it was only two in the afternoon, so she shamelessly ate some of the Christmas cookies on the counter and went up to her room to watch TV on her laptop until Gillian got out of school.

* * *

Maddie liked to pride herself on her mild, easygoing ways. She was sweet, loyal, and pretty easygoing, except for the occasional—well, maybe more than occasional—passive aggressive remark. It took a lot to make her really angry. The last time she had been truly mad was when Amelia had recorded Adventure Time over the Olympic Winter games, when her hockey team was playing. That had not been pleasant. And before that, it had been at Lars' house last spring, for calling that same sister stupid. She had never seen a scared expression on the older boy's face before then, and she never saw it again afterwards. But she could be pretty intimidating, as well as unforgiving, on very seldom occasions.

Something that, unfortunately, Gillian was about to find out.

Both girls were sitting cross-legged on the Beilschmidt's living room couch later that day. Gillian had a beer in one hand and was surfing through channels with the other. Maddie sat next to her, holding a piping hot mug of mint tea, chuckling at Gillian's irritated noises at the lack of Christmastime movies on television.

"Why don't you just change it to Lifetime?" Ludwig asked from the armchair, sighing slightly. He had a math textbook in his lap and was wearing his glasses, looking more serious than usual. Even the ugly Christmas sweater didn't make him look cheerful. Maddie couldn't tell if he was wearing it as a joke or not. It was so hard to tell when Germans were trying to be funny. "You always watch Lifetime movies at Christmas."

"I do not," Gillian objected violently, shooting her younger brother a dirty look. "Those are hella gay. I don't _watch _those. That's like, the kind of shit Toni watches."

"Uh huh," Ludwig said doubtfully, returning to his pre-calculus homework.

Maddie grinned at her friend from over the rim of her mug. "Awww, that's sweet, Gillian."

"I don't," Gillian muttered, flushing slightly. "But there's nothing else on, so…" She sank comfortably into the couch, sighing contentedly as the movie started. She snuggled up next to Maddie, resting her head on the Canadian girl's shoulder. "And this is what I promised ya! So I don't feel too bad for making you watch shitty Lifetime movies with me."

"I don't mind," Maddie said quietly, smiling a little as a loose strand of Gillian's silvery hair brushed her cheek.

They were halfway through a cringeworthy movie featuring a bickering married couple and an irritating but lovable pair of twins trying to work out their problems in time for Christmas when Gillian's phone began buzzing.

Sighing, Gillian sat up and took her phone out of her pocket and held it up to her ear without checking to see who it was. _"Ja?" _She asked impatiently. The voice on the other end spoke quickly, and her expression changed immediately. A scowl appeared on her face. "He what? That little fucker. Ok, ok, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it…yeah, yeah I did. I don't care. He shouldn't have ditched you, he's a little bi—what? Uh…" Gillian glanced guiltily at Maddie, who looked at her strangely.

_Who is it? _Maddie mouthed curiously. She couldn't quite hear what the other person was saying.

Gillian edged away from her on the couch and began to play with the hem of her heavy Bayern Muenchen sweatshirt anxiously. "Uh…I mean…well…I guess I co—is it really that important, Eli?" She said, with a pleading tone in her voice. She closed her pale eyelids wearily and said, "Yeah…yeah, of course I will. Yep. Uh huh. Kay. Just come over." She hung up and dropped the phone, and then picked up the remote again and turned up the volume.

Maddie watched her strangely. "Uh…Gil? Is everything okay?"

Gillian paused, and looked at her friend, gnawing on her lower lip. "Maddie," she began in a wheedling tone of voice that Maddie immediately recognized, having heard it numerous times whenever the German girl wanted something from her.

She arched an eyebrow, immediately suspicious. "Yes?"

"See, I know we were gonna ditch the winter formal together, and I know we made plans—" Maddie's heart sank.

"…and?"

"Well, okay, here's the thing," Gillian burst out all at once, her accent coming out stronger in her nervousness. "So you know my friend Elizabeta right, Eli on the swim team? Well she was supposed to go to the dance tonight with her lame-ass boyfriend Roderich, you know the prick that always plays the piano songs during assembly, and anyway, he had some recital or audition tonight that he somehow forgot about, like who forget things like that, and so he can't take Elizabeta to the dance and—"

"Gillian, I can hardly understand anything—" Maddie began, placing a hand on her shoulder, as if to slow her down.

"So I kinda told her I'd go with her? Cause she's my oldest friend and I know I told you I'd hang out with you tonight and I'm really sorry but you'll let me make it up to you, right? Maddie? You're not saying anything."

Maddie stared at her, confused, trying to make sense of the words. Because despite the fact that she knew in her heart that Gillian cared about her deeply and considered her one of her closest friends, she couldn't help but feel that she was being…ditched.

Well. Because she was.

And for Gillian's ex-crush, no less. Oh no. Her stomach did this weird diving thing, and she took a steadying sip of tea to calm herself. An image of beautiful, graceful Elizabeta Herdevary came into her head, with her sparkling green eyes and a body that every guy wanted and every girl envied. She felt sick.

"Aw, Maddie, don't make that faceeee—" Gilllian cried, hugging her friend tightly. "Please! I'll make it up to you, okay! I promise—" She nuzzled her face against the collar of Maddie's pale pink sweater, but Maddie shook her off, trying to contain the rising anger that swelled up inside her like a violent storm.

"It's fine," she said in a falsely cheerful voice. "We can just watch the rest of the movie until Elizabeta comes over. I have to do homework anyway," she added brightly, taking the remote from Gillian and turning up the volume. She stared intently at the TV so she wouldn't have to meet Gillian's concerned garnet eyes.

"It is?" Gillian asked uncertainly. "I thought you said you didn't have any homework—"

Ludwig watched them pensively from his father's armchair, his eyes flickering between the two girls curiously before returning to his math assignment, wisely not interfering.

"Yeah," Maddie said. "Totally fine."

Gillian sat back hesitantly. Even she was aware that Maddie was upset. Ludwig recognized that expression on his sister's face, when she knew she had done something wrong. So she settled down next to her friend awkwardly, carefully not touching her as she burrowed into her heavy soccer sweatshirt.

The three of them sat in a tense silence until the doorbell rang, jarring them out of their uncomfortable vigil.

Immediately, Gillian leapt off the couch, practically jumping over the coffee table to escape the living room as she ran to get the door.

Maddie continued to sit in stony silence, her thin arms wrapped tightly around her midsection as she heard Elizabeta's warm, low voice from the entryway:

"_Szia, _Gillian!"

"Hey, babe. You didn't have to get all dolled up for me." Maddie heard Elizabeta laugh and stiffened visibly, clenching her fists slightly.

"It wasn't for you," the Hungarian girl returned saucily. "I look damn good in this dress, and I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to wear it."

"Mmm, you do look pretty good. Come on, you can wait in the living room."

Maddie glanced over and saw Gillian leading her friend into the living room. "Hey, Maddie," she said breezily, as if nothing was wrong, but her eyes plead with her friend not to be angry. "Uh, you know my friend Elizabeta, right?"

Maddie gave her a very forced smile. "I think so."

"Oh, yeah! You're Amelia's sister, right?" Elizabeta asked brightly, giving her a warm smile. "I thought I recognized you from somewhere."

"Yes," she returned flatly, turning away from the two of them and staring fixedly at the TV without actually watching it. "You should probably get ready, Gil. You're going to be late."

Elizabeta glanced between the two girls uncomfortably, from Maddie's cool, indifferent expression to Gillian's slightly embarrassed one. "Um…"

"Yeah, you're right, Maddie," she agreed. "Come help me pick out something to wear?" She shot her friend a helpless look, begging her to understand.

Maddie sighed deeply and stood up. "Alright. I'll go with you." She grudgingly followed Gillian up the stairs to the German girl's bedroom, leaving Elizabeta and Ludwig to make small talk, since Elizabeta was already dressed for the dance.

Gillian opened the door to her bedroom at the end of the hallway, and despite herself, Maddie couldn't help but smile. Gillian's room was so very Gillian, it was impossible not to like it. Blown up prints of various classic rock and German metal artists decorated the dark blue walls of her room, lit up by the window on the north wall that she always kept open, even when it started to get cold. She still slept in the neatly made bunk bed she and Ludwig used to share, because she loved being on the top bunk. She was tiny enough that it was still comfortable enough for her, although she had since converted the lower bunk into a desk, where she spent several hours a day blogging. A little birdcage sat in the corner, with a yellow parakeet inside that chirped loudly upon seeing them. The lone bookshelf, a dark cherrywood color, overflowed with books: Tolstoy, Hemingway, Nabokov, and Palahniuk spilled out from the wooden shelves, yellowed with age and Gillian-sized fingerprints. In the other corner, next to her bed, stood a silver drum set that she was often forbidden from using, since the only time she seemed to like to practice was late at night, long after her father and Ludwig had gone to bed. The desk under her bunk served as a nightstand, with a stack of photographs that were obviously waiting to be put into a scrapbook on top, and a framed photo of her and her mother, a sweet-faced woman that looked remarkably like her, except without her albinism. Despite the dark colors of the room, it was perfectly clean—cleanliness was compulsory in the Beilschmidt family, it seemed—and welcoming.

"You can just sit on the beanbag while I find something to wear," Gillian directed, pointing at the giant yellow beanbag by the birdcage. She started peeling off her clothes even before she entered the walk in closet, leaving clothes as she walked.

Maddie hastily glanced away, embarrassed by her friend's lack of modesty, but not before she caught a glimpse of a surprisingly girly bra, a dark maroon lacy piece.

"Are you mad at me?" Gillian's muffled voice came from the depths of her closet over the rustling of clothing.

"No," Maddie lied, sinking into the bean bag and folding her arms irritably.

"Yes, you are," Gillian argued. "I can tell."

Maddie was silent, scowling in the direction of the closet door, even though Gillian couldn't see her.

She heard the older girl sigh. "She's my oldest friend, Mads. Please don't be mad…" There it was again, that damn whining voice that Maddie hated, because it almost always worked. But she wouldn't let it work this time. She had a right to be angry! She had made plans with Gillian, and now she was ditching her, and all of Maddie's other friends—well, Carlos, mainly—were going to the formal, so she would be left alone. Probably with Ludwig. She snorted at the idea of staying at the Beilschmidt's house, just watching tacky Lifetime movies with the taciturn German. _No, thank you_, she thought.

"Have you tried anything on yet?" She asked instead.

She heard a thump, and then a mumbled, "_Scheisse!" _

"Gillian?" She asked, standing up, trying not to laugh. For an athletic girl, Gillian could be really clumsy sometimes.

"I'm fine!" She yelled. "Hold on…" She opened the door, and struck a pose. "What do ya think, huh?"

Maddie stared, her mouth slightly agape.

She wore a tight red dress—a very _tiny _dress—that barely covered her backside, revealing far too much of her muscular thighs, and clung to every narrow curve she possessed. The red brought out the warmth in her pale skin, whereas a darker color would have washed her out entirely. She wore a very tall pair of black heels that wrapped around her slender ankles, showing off her toned legs. A simple silver necklace dipped down past her small breasts, accenting the red and black very nicely. Even the careless way her pale hair tumbled down to her chest looked good. She had even slapped on some mascara, something she hardly ever did. She looked…well.

"Um," Maddie managed in a strangled voice.

Gillian looked _sexy. _

"Uh…Maddie?" Gillian asked. She looked almost self-conscious, as Maddie failed to answer, and just stared at her helplessly. "Do you like it? Or no? Cause I thought it was pretty rockin' when I first bought it, but Francis said it made me look like a hooker—"

"You look hot," she blurted out, and immediately regretted her words. Dark color flooded her cheeks as she hastily looked away from Gillian's intent gaze. Gillian's face mirrored her own. She mumbled something in German that Maddie didn't understand, and then the bedroom door opened, startling them both.

"Finally, what was taking you so long?" Both girls whirled around to see Elizabeta standing in the door, hands on her hips. She looked quite pretty in a chocolate brown dress that hugged her body, minimizing her wide hips and emphasizing her enviable chest. Her mahogany curls hung down past her shoulders, framing her heart-shaped face. "Oooh, I like that dress, Gil! You should definitely wear that!"

Gillian finally tore her eyes away from Maddie and cracked a smile at her friend. "Thanks, bra. I think I will. Seeing as I have nothing else to wear." She tugged it down a little and wobbled unsteadily over to her date on her heels. "Ha! I'm taller than you now."

"Only because you're wearing those heels," Elizabeta said amiably, taking her arm grandly. "You're still a midget. Isn't that right, Maddie?" She smiled at the Canadian girl, who looked like she was trying to blend into the beanbag at the moment.

"Hey, no short jokes," Gillian retorted, "or I'm leaving you like a prom night dumpster baby. Oh, do you want us to drop you off at your house on the way there?" She turned to Maddie, who still looked quite flushed.

"Uh, that's okay, I told Francis to come get me," she lied, standing up and pulling out her cell phone to text Francis. _Crap. Now I actually have to text him to come get me,_ she thought. _Why did I have to say that?! _But she knew why. She didn't want to see Gillian with Elizabeta, for whatever reason. She refused to think about what that reason could be.

"Francis isn't going?" Elizabeta asked in surprise.

"Nah," Gillian said, shaking her head almost sympathetically. "He's all put out because Arthur is going with someone else."

"Who is he going with?" Elizabeta asked, looking very interested all of a sudden. She was quite fond of gossip, although she would never admit to it. Maddie perked up in spite of herself, hoping that he had mustered the courage to ask Amelia.

"He asked Amelia! She was telling me about it at practice," Gillian answered, walking over to the door. The other two girls followed her down the hallway. "It's too bad, really. I was rooting for him and Francis. But then I remembered I'd have to deal with their arguing all the time when Frannie and I move in together after college, so it's just as well, I guess." She shrugged her slender shoulders.

Maddie almost chuckled, but then she remembered that she was mad at Gillian, so she settled for a rather unfortunate expression of disdain as she followed the older girls down the stairs.

"Well, Ludwig! Tell us we look fucking awesome!" Gillian announced, striking another pose at the bottom of the stairs. Maddie tried not to stare, but that dress left very little to the imagination. "Come on, come in here! I know you can here me," his sister sang out in the direction of the living room.

With a heavy sigh, her younger brother lumbered into the room, adjusting his glasses and staring at her with a disapproving frown. "Gillian, that dress is very—"

"Flattering?" Elizabeta suggested mischievously, smiling at the prudish junior.

"Revealing," he said flatly, his blue eyes narrowing at the two girls. "Does _Vati_ know you're leaving the house in that?" Their father wasn't back from work yet—not surprising, really, since he considered himself married to his work—so Ludwig obviously felt the need to stand in for him, even though he was the younger sibling.

"Does _Vati_ know about the stack of pornos under your bed?" Gillian replied easily, quirking a pale eyebrow at him.

Ludwig's face fell in an instant, and turned the approximate color of a tomato. He opened his mouth to reply, but closed it again, unable to formulate a response. He was silent for a full five seconds, and then he turned and walked out of the room, trying to make it look like he wasn't retreating.

"Ha," his sister said with a triumphant smirk. "Okay, well, if you don't need a ride, Maddie, I guess we'd better go…" She looked up at her friend, who stood a few steps above them.

"Have fun," she replied dryly, her spite returning now that she had had a few minutes to adjust to Gillian's appearance.

Gillian's face crumpled at her cold response. "Okay…"

"Bye, Maddie," Elizabeta said, shooting her a rather annoyed look. The Hungarian girl didn't understand what was going on, but she didn't like the way Maddie was talking to her friend. "Have a good night."

"Yeah, you too," she replied, feeling all of her irritation condense into a severe dislike for the green-eyed young woman in front of her.

Gillian's eyes flitted between her two friends uneasily. "We could wait for Francis to get here—"

"No," both girls said at the same time.

"Go on ahead," Maddie said acidly.

"We're going to be late if we wait any longer," Elizabeta pointed out practically. "He's on his way, right?"

"Yeah," Maddie answered. "It's fine. Go on. Have fun."

"Alright," Gillian said, her shoulders slumping slightly in defeat. She allowed Elizabeta to lead her to their waiting car outside. "Bye, Mads."

She waved until both girls had left, and then she sat down on the wooden steps and held her head in her hands, trying to justify the unreasonable jealousy she felt at seeing Gillian walk off with her arm companionably around Elizabeta's shoulders.

_They're just friends_, she told herself. _More importantly, Gillian and I are just friends. Definitely. I don't feel anything for her. _But then she thought about that stupid dream that she had managed to push away, and felt her face flood with color.

She needed Francis, now.

"_Allo?_" Her cousin answered after the fourth ring. "What is it, _ma petit?_"

"I'm at Gil's," she said plaintively. "Come get me. Please?" She didn't normally sound so demanding, but then, she was really upset, and it was only Francis. Even more so than Amelia, he was the one she went to when she was upset.

There was a pause, and then the French boy asked, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing happened," she said hurriedly. "I had plans with Gillian tonight, and then she decided to go to the dance with Elizabeta. That's all." She tried, unsuccessfully, to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

"Hmmm," he hummed thoughtfully. "That wasn't very nice of her. _Oui_, I can get you. I'm leaving now." She heard the jingling of car keys and felt a rush of affection for him all of a sudden. Sure, Francis was kind of sleazy, and he could be fairly conceited, but he was there when it counted.

"Thanks," she mumbled. She hung up before he could ask any more questions, and winced when she saw the background of her phone: two girls, one blonde, one white-haired, hugging each other and grinning at the camera in front of the mall. She quickly changed it to one of Kuma glaring balefully at her, and remained on the steps, waiting for Francis to show up and trying desperately not to think of a certain soccer player who hated French.

* * *

"Maddie…are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"No," Maddie said defiantly, stabbing her container of chocolate almond ice cream with a spoon aggressively. "I just want to watch Gilmore Girls."

Francis sighed. It was nearly midnight, and they had been watching Gilmore Girls on the Jones-Williams' living room couch for the past two and a half hours. Francis really did enjoy Gilmore Girls, he wasn't ashamed to admit it, but he was worried about his unusually hostile younger cousin. She sat curled around her ice cream protectively, conspicuously ignoring her phone, watching the TV intently with the sort of concentration he only saw during hockey season.

"Alright. Well, I'll be here if you want to talk."

Another few minutes passed in silence, and then she mumbled, "Sorry I'm being such a jerk, Francis. I'm just…in a bad mood, I guess."

Francis chuckled. "Maddie, you are one of the sweetest people I know. It is perfectly alright to be out of sorts every now and then, you know." He tugged on her French braid playfully. "Especially at certain Germans who are very vexing. I would know."

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye uneasily. "Yeah…I guess so…"

"And it's normal to be jealous," he continued, wondering if he could get her to open up about this. It was worth a try, anyway. He suspected that his cousin had stronger feelings for his best friend than she let on, but it was so hard to tell with Maddie normally. But now, it was obvious to anyone that she was burning with jealousy. He would recognize that emotion anywhere, having felt it quite strongly in school today when he had been about to go up to Arthur and tease him about something or the other, only to see him awkwardly ask Amelia to the dance in the middle of the hallway, with several initial failed attempts to convey his emotions. He sighed, running a hand through his smooth blond locks. "It just means that you care."

"I'm not jealous," Maddie said quickly. "Of anyone."

"Maddie, you're not usually the type to lie to yourself," he said sternly, taking the remote from her and turning the TV off. She stared at it helplessly as the light winked off, leaving them in the relative darkness of the room. She sank into the couch with a groan.

"I don't want to think about it, Francis," she mumbled, burying her face in a pillow and collapsing on his shoulder. "Can't we just watch TV?"

"We've been watching TV for nearly three hours, and you ate that entire container of ice cream yourself," he informed her, gazing down at his unhappy cousin and trying not to smile. "Now, come on. Tell your cousin Francis what's going on." He continued to tug on her braid until she smacked his hand away, sitting up and hugging the pillow to her chest.

"I don't like Elizabeta," she managed finally.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise. Well, he hadn't expected her to admit that so readily. But he also suspected that wasn't the real cause of her unhappiness. "And why is that? She's a sweet girl…most of the time," he added, recalling the time she had punched him in the face when he attempted to hit on Roderich. In his defense, he hadn't been aware that Roderich was in a relationship at the time.

"She's just so…I don't know. She's so perfect, you know? I guess it's hard not to dislike people like that. I know she's nice," she added, glancing up at Francis, not wanting to sound rude. "I guess I'm just petty." She sighed.

"I don't think you are," Francis said loyally. "At least not most of the time."

Maddie shrugged, and ate some more ice cream.

"But this is really about Gillian, isn't it?" He pressed.

Maddie stared into her ice cream pensively, not meeting his candid blue gaze. "What do you mean?"

"Is it possible that you're jealous of Elizabeta…because she's with Gillian right now?"

"I'm _mad_ at Gillian for ditching me," she corrected, in an obviously hurt voice.

"And you have every right to be," Francis agreed. "Elizabeta would have been fine by herself. But…"

"But…?" Maddie continued, frowning slightly when she realized she was out of ice cream. The Canadian girl gave a world-weary sigh and set the container on the coffee table, not caring that it would later have sticky chocolate rings where the carton had been.

Her cousin gave a sigh of frustration, throwing his hands in the air. "Don't make me spell it out, Maddie. You have a crush on Gillian. That's why you're jealous."

"What?" She squeaked. "I definitely don't! That's…why would you say that?"

"Because I am French, my dear. I know these things. Don't roll your eyes, it's true," he added in a wounded tone. Why was that everyone's reaction when he tried to give them love advice?

She huffed indignantly. "I can't have a crush on her. She's my friend. That would be weird."

"Would it?" He asked philosophically.

She rolled her eyes again at his tone and answered, "Yes. It would be. Because I'm not gay."

"I didn't say you were," he replied, smirking. "But you do like Gillian."

"I—no," she said, and even in the dark he could tell that she was blushing. "That's not it. I'm just mad at her for ditching me."

"Alright, alright," he said, putting his hands up defensively. "If that's what you want to think of it."

She was silent for a moment, before asking in a small voice, "Do you really think that's why?"

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I can't tell you that. But that's what it seems like to me. Because the way you're acting right now is how I acted most of today. At least that's what Toni said," he added with a good-natured chuckle. "Easy for him to say. Lovino actually went with him to the dance."

Distracted by this bit of gossip, Maddie's violet eyes widened in surprise. "Wait, really? As a date? That's so sweet!"

"Lovino insisted it was only because Antonio offered to buy him dinner," Francis said with a laugh.

Maddie chuckled softly. "Well. I'm sorry that you couldn't go with Arthur," she said, putting a sympathetic hand on his arm. "I know you really like him."

"Yes, well, he can't stand me, and I've only encouraged that," the French boy said with a sigh, looking a little down. "Besides, I'm almost glad he asked Amelia. He's been crazy about her for years."

Maddie smiled sadly at his expression. "I wish I could be as mature about it as you, Francis," she said quietly. "I just get jealous and petty…" She trailed off, realizing what she had just admitted.

Her cousin smiled, and reached over to hug her. "It happens to the best of us."

"Thanks," she said warmly, hugging him back. "You're a good friend, Francis."

"It's true," he agreed, grinning. "Do you want some more ice cream?"

"Yes, please," she said, smiling, handing him her empty carton. "I mean, if you don't want the rest of yours."

"Ugh. No, thank you. I'll go get the rest of it. Here," he added, tossing her the remote. "We have to finish the season."

She nodded vigorously, feeling a little bit better. She wondered if Gillian was having a good time, and felt rather ashamed of the way she had acted. Sure, it was rude of Gillian to make other plans on the spot, but it had been for her best friend. Wouldn't she have done the same thing for Amelia? _Except I never had a crush on Amelia_, some rebellious part of her mind grumbled. She shoved it away and turned the TV on again, ready to drown herself in teenage drama that had nothing to do with her.

* * *

_Platonic Franada is the reason that the sun shines. And FrUS, for that matter. I just love France being paternal._

_Thanks to everyone who has followed/favorited so far, please leave feedback if you like it, or especially if you don't and you think there are things I could fix!_


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